Ripples
by Sumei1
Summary: [Time travel, AU] The remains of Team 7 find themselves left in the past, and they have no choice but to adapt. And hey, maybe Kakashi-sensei is human too. (REWRITE OF DAY'S PAST/ COMPLETE)
1. 1: Reawakening

**Chapter 1**

Kakashi was leaning firmly against the tree, nose buried in his book. He kept a careful eye upon his kawaii little students who were having a (not-so-healthy) competition (but, hey, shinobi life was all about having risks, right?).

Usually Kakashi didn't let them go far as they almost always ended up with Naruto making an annoying comment and Sakura then introducing her fist to Naruto's face (though by now they were practically neighbors). However, on this fairly sunny day Kakashi was feeling a bit generous (a fact that was totally not contributed to by the fact a new book that had been introduced to one of his 'favorite series'. . .) and decided to let them do a nice little senbon throwing contest.

Sakura, who had some experience with the needle projectiles through medical procedures, was fairly decent at the practice, using moves with the precision that only medic-nin were required to have.

Naruto, on the other hand, sported several red dots on his palm from mishandling the senbon (though the cuts had long since closed thanks to an occasionally helpful nine-tailed demon sealed inside of him), and was wincing as he attempted to hold the needle.

"I'll get it this time!~(da)ttebayo!" He announced, sloppily throwing the senbon, which, after being airborne for a mere three seconds, fell pathetically to the ground, several feet away from the target. Pathetically, a small worm inched past the senbon quickly, having just nearly been impaled. When the senbon hit the ground, Kakashi felt that a part of Naruto's soul had just died right then.

Sakura shook her head in exasperation. Naruto, despite improving quite a bit after his tutelage under Jiriaya (though senbon-throwing wasn't the only thing he had picked up, unfortunately), was still incredibly bad at aim and genjutsu.

"Naruto-baka!" She growled stomping up to the blonde. Said boy cringed, expected the stinging fist that usually followed such words, but instead she grabbed his wrist (with just enough force _not _to break it) and forcefully bent it into the correct hand position.

Naruto's wince died in his throat at Sakura's demonic look (one would think it was _she _who was the one holding a demon). Placing one of the metal needles into his awaiting hand, she stretched back his arm, and then flung it forward, nearly dislocating Naruto's arm in the process.

The steel needle hit the dead center of the target, embedded almost to the end tip into the wooden target. Naruto, through the stinging pain in his hand from being controlled by Sakura's chakra, felt satisfaction rush through him. "I did it~(da)ttebayo!" He shouted, blatantly proud despite the fact he technically hadn't been the one who'd done it.

Sakura glared at him. "The only reason you got it was because I _forced _you to do it!" She growled, slamming a chakra-powered slap to his skull. Sure, she'd been the one to help him in the first place, but doesn't everyone want a little credit every once in a while?

Kakashi landed softly on the soles of his feet, light as a cat. "Okay kawaii"—Kakashi took a moment to appreciate the disturbed looks that spread across his 'kawaii' students' faces at the thought of him considering them cute—"children!" He smiled, "Let's go back before I have to explain why Naruto has to be brought back in a stretcher, shall we?"

He knew from experience that if he ended up in the hospital a lot from chakra exhaustion, that was _nothing _compared to the amount of times Sakura had (_accidentally _of course . . . .) almost beat in Naruto's skull with her fists. It was a wonder the thing wasn't in a concave formation already.

Sakura made an unhappy grunting noise and started picking up the senbon littered around the field (mostly by Naruto's many failed attempts). She suddenly perked up at a thought that had wormed into her mind, and she looked at Naruto with a sly almost foxy grin, "Hey Naruto, since you obviously lost, you owe me money."

Naruto whipped his head around at the thought of depleting his little frog purse of even more coins. "Oh Kami—how much did I say?" Naruto had been a bit carried off at the time, not really thinking about the amount he'd decided on for the bet.

Naruto, Kakashi mused, was a lot like Minato in the aspect of being a horrid gambler. Always being interested in the thrill of gambling, his sensei had always participated (then failed) until Kushina had displayed her disapproval. And whatever the red-head said was law.

"Oh, only about twenty-five ryo," She shrugged innocently. "Pay up." The underlying threat of what would happen to Naruto if he _didn't _made him quite dedicated to getting his debt filled out.

Kakashi smiled at Naruto's pale expression—what had he said about them being cute?

But as much as he'd like to let them squabble on, he'd arranged with the Hokage for some lovely D-rank missions later in the day, and though he made a reputation for himself, he rather not be late for mission briefs (even if the mission was just for weeding—not that he did any himself of course).

"Come on, we need to go to the Hokage office," Kakashi said enthusiastically, placing a swift end to their argument. He caught Sakura muttering that her teammate still owed her. His black mask hid the content smile that graced his face.

"You still owe me," Sakura whispered to Naruto. After another morbid threat, Naruto's face was white and his whisker marks stood out on his blatantly terrified face.

Kakashi smiled and buried his nose back into his book.

* * *

As Kakashi walked past the village gates, he instantly felt _something_ was off. Perhaps one could just call it instinct, but the silver-haired man had learned a long time ago instinct was one of your most acute senses out in the field.

It took Naruto to figure out what he hadn't, what he _should've _figured out, being the S-ranked jounin he was. But everyone had their off days—and _this _was definitely going to be an off day for Hatake Kakashi.

"Hey, sensei? It sure is quiet—did Tsunade-obaa-chan go into lockdown or something? Why would that be? What's going on?" Naruto asked, placing his hands behind his head as he walked.

Kakashi's lone gray eye flicked around, taking in account that the streets were surprisingly empty, and the venders that were open had pitifully small amounts of goods on sale. _Sure, civilians can be a bit greedy with food, but why would so many stations be closed? _Kakashi mused as he glanced at a closed vender that had a hand-written sign that said in bold letters: _Out of stock_.

The last time Kakashi had remembered the stalls being like this was. . . .

_"__Kakashi, so how do you like the ramen?"_

_"__Honestly why do you always argue so much? Kakashi you should respect your teammates more."_

_"__Kakashi don't move too much or the wound will reopen."_

_"__Baka-shi get back here!"_

_"__Kakashi get your foot off Obito's head!"_

_"__Spar me, my _eternal _rival!"_

_"__I'm sorry Obito!"_

_"__Kakashi. Take my eye—we'll see the future together—"_

Kakashi shook himself wearily out of the memories. Now wasn't the time to go back twenty years—he had a new team now that needed him.

_Minato-sensei. . . ._

Kakashi's eye instinctively looked to the Hokage Mountain where the five previous kages had their scowling faces embedded into the stone (Kakashi still recalled Minato trying to convince the carvers to let him at least smile (previous requests had been him wearing a Konoha-styled Laplander that Rin had given him before—this idea had been shot down quickly)).

It took Kakashi a while to finally register in his mind that Minato's face wasn't there. First, his jumbled thoughts told him that the carvers were just being rude and decided to remove it—but then it set in—you _can't _just remove a head from a stone cliff (it also wouldn't explain why Tsunade was gone as well). The fact it took him that long to realize that it was just _somehow _gone was telling him that the peace-time was getting to him.

Staring sharply at the three stone faces, he wondered why they were suddenly not there. The stone faces themselves just stared at Kakashi apathetically, not the least bit of help at all. The second Hokage's frowning face almost seemed to say: _deal with it. You're a shinobi too. _He made a one-eyed glare at them, as if that would help matters.

"Sensei? The faces. . . ." Sakura's voice faded into a muted section of his mind, as Kakashi felt the first presence of chakra he'd felt since they had entered the village gates. Kakashi's mind kicked up.

_ANBU. _

_Four._

_Medium amounts of chakra. Probably B-or-A ranked._

_Easily dealt with if it comes to fighting. Good thing there aren't many civilians around . . . _if_ it does come to that_, Kakashi analyzed quickly.

Without meaning to, Kakashi's back straightened out of its characteristic slouch as he got into a more defensive position. Kakashi could still easily detect the ANBU's chakra flares as they communicated through the pattern of pulsing chakra. As an ex-ANBU captain, he easily decoded the rapid-fire messages. They were moving in.

ANBU tended to have an attack-first, questions-later mindset—something Kakashi knew firsthand. . Kakashi mentally cursed, really, he should've done it before, seeing who he was, but he hadn't taught Naruto and Sakura ANBU fighting styles, and now it was coming back to bite at him. Konoha ANBU had different fighting tactics and styles than shinobi. They were less reluctant to use dirtier methods, backstabbing and lying was a second nature to them—if anything they were more inclined to do so.

"ANBU." He said softly as the black shadows flickered in front of them. The blank white masks stared calculatedly at them. _Mouse, Boar, Frog, and Moose_, Kakashi identified. He felt a shiver run through his spine. Frog had died eight years ago on an incorrectly ranked solo mission. Unless if they (the ANBU) had replaced Frog with another member, this Frog definitely couldn't be the old one. After all—the old Frog had been one of the captains that had taught Kakashi himself the tricks of the trade in the shadows.

"The Hokage wishes to see you," Moose spoke blankly, voice holding just enough force to sound like a command.

Naruto looked at the four masked men in surprise, and started to back up. "Kakashi-sensei. . . . Who are these guys?" He asked uncertainty at the deadpanned expressions the ANBU were giving him. Scorn, dislike, and downright hatred, Uzumaki Naruto could deal with—human brick walls? Not so much.

"The ANBU black ops. Hand-picked by the Hokage himself." Kakashi said, wary of saying more in front of the ANBU in front of him. ANBU tended to not like when 'outsiders' knew too much about their inner circles.

"Are they strong?" Naruto eyed Mouse. Kakashi was prepared to allow Sakura to punch him if the orange-clad ninja tried to fight one of the ANBU for fun. That was something that would definitely be considered 'treason'.

"Don't even think about it," Kakashi groaned. He nodded at the ANBU. "When does he"—he paused, checking his use of gender labeling was correct. When he found no complaint, confusion rushed at him. _Where's Tsunade?_—"want us to see him?"

"Now."

Seeing Kakashi wasn't the most cooperative person, Boar grabbed Sakura and body-flickered away. Most likely to the Hokage's office as a form of 'motivation'. Well, at least it looked like ANBU-humor hadn't changed.

"S-Sakura-chan!?" Naruto yelped in surprise. Kakashi mentally sighed. _This _was why he should've taught them ANBU tactics. This was one of their usual stunts. As Naruto lost his cool, Mouse, Frog, and Moose stood by, unfazed by his act, patiently waiting for them to start moving.

Starting on the dirt path, Kakashi walked ahead, reminding himself where the different roads were. "Come on." Keeping in mind the following ANBU operatives, Kakashi covered up his emotions of surprise whenever he almost landed himself in a dead end.

"Where are we going? We gotta save Sakura-chan! She might be in danger—those ANBU-people might harm her!" Naruto said urgently. Kakashi almost felt like smiling at his naivety.

"Don't worry, the Sandaime has absolute control over the ANBU. He's not the type of person to order her to come to harm," Kakashi reassured the blonde.

"Ojiisan? Isn't he," Naruto paused, a tinge of grief dulling his usual hyperactive voice, "D—"

His voice cut off as Kakashi started choking the air around him, lacing it with a diluted version of killing intent. It was more of a silent '_shut up_' than an '_I will slowly rip you apart_' thing. Sending Naruto a warning look, the silver-haired jounin continued on like the exchange had never happened. Inside he cursed though—the ANBU were sure to have noticed Naruto's slipup, including maybe their names. Quickly Kakashi selected cover names for them—a good shinobi was always prepared.

He hadn't confirmed it yet, but if they _had _by the slightest chance, indeed time traveled, he sure as heck wasn't going to mess it up because of Naruto. A world of possibilities seemed to open up to him. If he had the time correct then there was a possibility that he could change it—change _everything_. Obito—Rin—Minato—Kushina—Danzo—Tenzou—Orrochimaru even! _Everything _could change!

Kakashi's breathing hitched slightly as a wave of emotion overtook him. Clenching his fist to control himself, Kakashi cursed. _What am I doing? I'm getting ahead of myself—when was the last time I unhinged my emotions like that? That won't get me anywhere, especially if we really are back in time. . . . _

". . . Akashi-sensei?" Naruto asked plaintively. "Where's the Hokage Tower? It's supposed to be over there but it's not . . . ." Kakashi groaned. If there could be any way _clearer _to tell the ANBU that they were time-travelers, it would be Naruto to find it.

In some ways, Kakashi wished he had Sakura with him, the pink-haired kunoichi being the sensible one of his team. But in a different view, that would've left Naruto in Boar's custody, and Kakashi didn't want to imagine what Naruto would tell him. After all, the Boar that Kakashi remembered had specialized in interrogation.

"Arashi, _remember_ it's over there? You're always forgetting things like this," Kakashi edged his voice with warning, and Naruto thankfully caught up to what he was implying. The blonde also didn't seem to notice the name difference. _Better start intergrading into this world already_, Kakashi decided.

"Oh, right sensei! Remember that time I got lost before? I was almost as late as you!"

That story had actually happened, though Naruto had twisted the details quite a bit. The reality was that he had been practicing with his Kyubi chakra at the training field, and afterwards, found himself conveniently in front of Ichiraku with a rumbling stomach, forgetting about the meeting at the Hokage tower in favor of a steaming hot bowl of ramen. And about being as late as Kakashi, Naruto still had a long way to go to compare to the grand master of lateness.

Kakashi eye-smiled at Naruto, partially from the memory and also since the ANBU stalking them would be checking if he was a threat or not. Better be thought to be an idiotic and ignorant daydreaming shinobi than being shoved into a jail cell barely an hour into finding that they were in the past. After all, how was he supposed to save Obito from a rotting underground cage?

The silver-haired man just hoped they wouldn't notice the Kyubi chakra residing inside of Naruto. A shiver ran through him, _would Kushina notice if they met? Naruto has a right to meet his parents, but we don't need two nine-tailed beasts rampaging around Konoha years before schedule. . . ._ Kakashi lost himself in thoughts as they walked to the faded and old Hokage building.

* * *

Single grey eye staring at the Sandaime Hokage, Kakashi felt emotions running through him again, restraint gone once more.

So much for controlling himself (A small part of Kakashi's mind was contemplating the possibility that he would be able to refrain from hugging Obito, Rin, and Minato as soon as he saw them).

The Sandaime looked . . . well, _good_. Young. Positively not dead.

He had a full head of brown hair and his eye wrinkles weren't as prominent. The grief of losing his wife, and possibly his students, wasn't apparent yet. The shadows of having to take up the hat again, long after he should've retired, weren't on his face yet. The betrayal of Orrochimaru, Tsunade's departure while grieving the deaths of her brother and Dan, and Jiriaya leaving to continue his books had yet to happen.

The man had seen too much in his old life, yet here he was, untouched by the worst to come.

Forcing himself to tear his eyes from the Hokage, Kakashi glanced at Sakura, who was standing calmly beside Boar. Sure, her fists were clenched and her breathing was fast paced, but she hadn't killed anybody yet—that was a plus.

Frog, Mouse, and Moose stood by, rejoining Boar by the door.

"You have infiltrated our village. We are currently in a tight situation, so please excuse me if I'm a slight bit rushed. We simply don't have the time nor manpower to give you a proper interrogation, so I'll be making do with what I have," Sarutobi Hiruzen said honestly, underneath his gravelly voice the stiff confidence and determination that had gotten him the position of Hokage in the first place was apparent.

"Understood, continue," Kakashi leaned comfortably against the wall.

"Tell me why you have Konoha hitai-ates," The Sandaime said bluntly.

If his students had been shocked at his quick analysis, they didn't show it. Kakashi felt a surge of pride at them. If only Sasuke was here. . . . _Enough of that. What to say? He won't take excuses. . . . This needs to be plausible while a lie as well. _Taking a breath, Kakashi steadied himself; _every good lie has a kernel of truth in it._

"These are my students. I'm Hatake Urushi." Kakashi explained, lie slipping easily from his clothed lips. _Now for the gamble. _"It's the Third Shinobi War, yes?" Seeing the Sandaime's sharp-eyed nod, Kakashi continued. "We found some dead Konoha shinobi, and since they completed genin-level training," Kakashi couldn't help but slip that in. No doubt they would analyze everything he said, and by saying that, they would underestimate Sakura and Naruto's skill level. Sure, the lie would be shattered as soon as they used a strong enough jutsu (or if Sakura displayed her near-flawless medic ninjutsu), but it would help their first few days.

Kakashi continued, studying the Hokage's expression intently. _Surprised? Disgusted? Amused?_ "I thought that they should have Konoha hitai-ate, as I intended to take them here one day to visit my"—the next leap of faith—"brother."

"And whom is this brother?" Hiruzen stared doubtfully at them. Sakumo hadn't spoken much of himself or his clan, especially after his accident, and Hiruzen couldn't recall him speaking of any relatives. And now that he was gone, there was no way to confirm what this man was saying. Either way, the way his hitai-ate was slanted over his left eye gave Hiruzen shivers—an oddity in his own office.

"His name's Sakumo? Kind of tall, I guess, wears this ridiculous ponytail. By the way, is he still into gardening?" Kakashi rambled on, grabbing random facts about his father that he recalled from his childhood.

Naruto and Sakura thankfully stayed silent.

"It grieves me to say this, but your . . . brother," Hiruzen hesitated. Should he really be telling this stranger this? _No matter, practically all the five countries know that the White Fang had killed himself. _"Did seppeku."

Hiruzen's ears picked up the gasp of the pink-haired kunoichi that Boar had brought in. Her jade orbs were widened in shock, and she stared at her sensei in surprise. The man in question didn't look as upset as Hiruzen would've thought. _Strange. _He filed it away in his mind for later to discuss with the ANBU.

"He failed to finish an invaluable mission. He saved his comrades and abandoned the mission. It was an honorable decision, but it cost Konoha much. Iwa has gained the upper hand from this, and now we're under strain. Sakumo stood strong by his choice, until his teammates turned their backs on him as well, and so Sakumo's resolve degraded, sinking further into depression for months." The room was silent. "He killed himself about five months after the mission and his son, Hatake Kakashi, has been left in his father's shadow."

Hiruzen swallowed back a bitter taste in his throat. He always felt like that when talking about the children of the village. They were suffering for things that the previous generation had done, yet now they were here—forced to fight a war that was not their own.

The orange-clothed boy spoke up, loud voice sobered by the mood. "Who is this . . . Kakashi?"

Forcing himself to chuckle gently, "He's a very talented child, but he didn't take his father's death well. He's currently under the tutelage of Namikaze Minato."

The boy had a shocked expression on his face at Minato's name, and Hiruzen couldn't help but notice their similarities. The boy's vibrant blue eyes stared at him (_just like Minato_) as if longing to tell him something that Hiruzen couldn't possibly comprehend. The depth in those eyes. _It's just like those children. Sent to war too soon. And come back with shattered souls. Shattered hearts. Shattered dreams. Reality is harsh, and it crushed them into the ground._

Hiruzen glanced to Boar, who was standing stiff as usual, hands in uniform positioning behind his back. Catching his gaze, Boar nodded to him, tapping his finger on his left thigh three times. _Good. They're telling the truth as far as he can tell. I'll position ANBU around the house as well as have Minato check up on them just in case._

Returning his attention to the three shinobi in front of him, Hiruzen scanned them up and down once again.

Despite his claims, 'Urushi' didn't seem to have come to Konoha recently, and unless the man took to plucking off Konoha uniforms from corpses often, Hiruzen had no clue how he was wearing the standardized current Konoha flak jacket.

Catching him looking at her, the pink-haired girl smiled cautiously. "Hello, sensei . . . we didn't introduce ourselves. . . ." She looked at Urushi, who after a moment of hesitation nodded consent. _She doesn't feel at ease enough to tell me her name, yet surely Urushi would've told them about Konoha and how I'm the Hokage since he said they'd planned to come before. . . . _More questions. No answers.

Hiruzen knew it was ridiculous, especially in the deceptive careers of shinobi, but despite the obvious suspicion that shrouded the trio, there was an underlying authentic sensation he felt was real.

"My name is Haruno," Urushi stiffened at this, but as the girl continued he relaxed, "Sasami." It was obviously a fake name. The way her vocals rose into the word awkwardly was enough to know. Suspicious, but nothing to prove them a threat. Hiruzen knew multiple shinobi who refused to tell others their names, using aliases instead.

"Uzumaki N—" The boy started until Urushi cut through him.

"Arashi."

Hiruzen perked his ears. _Urushi doesn't want me to know the boy's name. Though the surname seems practiced. He doesn't look like an Uzumaki . . . he doesn't have their red hair, though he does have bright eyes. He didn't come in with the refugees either, I would've remembered. . . . _When one had a whole village to keep track of, one became quite good at remembering names and faces. After all, in meetings with other countries, some shinobi were prone to getting irritated when others didn't remember them. A lot of times, those shinobi in question were ones you didn't particularly want to make enemies of.

_So where did Urushi find them?_

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he clearing his throat, "You will be staying in the Hatake estate." Nodding to Boar, he continued, "Boar will show you to it, and help you get settled in. He'll also clarify the situation with Kakashi." For a young child, he was surprisingly, but rightfully, paranoid.

Hiruzen didn't fail to notice Arashi's glare to Boar. _Loyal_, he noted. _Probably still holding a grudge from when Boar took Sasami here. Determined. _

Switching his gaze to Sasami as she left the room, he stared at her. _Strong-willed. Sisterly to Arashi. Clever. Tempered from the way she nearly punched Boar's head off._

Finally, looking to Urushi who was leaving just behind his team, one eye still darting about the room. _Veteran. Strong. Suspicious. Guarded. Protective._

_Possibly the most loyal of the three._

* * *

**A/N: Hello everyone!**

**So here it is, the rewrite of Day's Past!**

**I've renamed it 'Ripples' (cool right?) since Day's Past Rewrite was kinda a mouthful. This story'll have longer chapters, a different plotline, and better writing. I won't promise fast updates (because we all know that's a lie) so, I apologize in advance for my procrastination!**

**I hope you enjoy the fic guys!**

**-Sumei1**

**Also- pointing out errors in my awful grammar is makes me eternally grateful!**


	2. 2: Settling

**Chapter 2**

Kakashi sat on his bed, boredom enclosing on him.

It hadn't been _his _fault that he'd sprained his ankle! He'd been on the stinking _warfront _before yet Minato-sensei had demanded he stay home from this pitiful excuse of an injury (even _he_-who-Kakashi-wouldn't-name would've let Kakashi continue practice). His excuse was that he should let his ankle heal.

If it had been Kakashi's choice, he could've easily gotten his ankle healed by a medic nin. Minato-sensei's excuse for that was that his body would become dependent upon the chakra to heal small things if he didn't let nature take its course. Clenching his fist, Kakashi glared up at the dusty mirror that was in the corner of his room. Somehow it was still intact. After his father . . . _no_, after _that _man's death, he'd destroyed all the mirrors in the house. Every reflection of himself reminded himself of _him_, even with the black mask covering half of his face.

Kakashi's thoughts were broken by a knocking on the door.

Standing up (and resisting the urge to wince as his ankle seared with pain), Kakashi hobbled in a rather undignified manner to the door. Sending out his chakra, he felt a heavily masked presence—dim enough to easily pass by; yet bright enough to know it was there. _ANBU most likely_, Kakashi thought.

The hairs on the back of his neck raised. _They _were the ones who dragged him from the body that night. It had been so cold—blood soaking through everything. The floorboards, his clothes, his skin, _everything_ as lightning had flashed illuminating _his _features.

Next was another chakra signature he didn't recognize. _It seems . . . familiar . . . somehow. How? _

As the hard knock resounded again, Kakashi hurried up his limping (ANBU already seemed to detest him—Kakashi didn't need another reason to get on the worse side of the shadows of Konoha). As he opened the door, he tried to distribute his weight evenly. _Never admit your weaknesses. It will be your downfall. That man showed his shame to the world and look where that got him. Remember the shinobi . . . rules._

Kakashi's train of thought died as he looked up at . . . _him_. _How is he here? He's dead!? _Groping his leg desperately, Kakashi's fingers brushed against air where he usually kept his weapon pouch. _Where's a kunai when I need it?! _Panic warped Kakashi's mind. Why was _he _here?

"Who are you?" Kakashi tried to keep the shaking out of his voice. Kakashi realized with shame he sounded like a child. A _scared_ child. To the right of the man that looked too much like _him_, was a blank-faced ANBU guard. His ice sharp stare turned to Kakashi, and he couldn't help a shiver run up his back. Stupid ANBU intimidation tactics.

"Hokage-sama has requested you give hospitality to these visitors. Haruno Sasami. Uzumaki Arashi. Hatake Urushi." The ANBU droned on blankly.

_Uzumaki? Like that Kushina-woman Minato-sensei was talking about?—_Kakashi's thoughts about the second name was drowned out by the final one. _Hatake?! Who is he? My . . . father never mentioned another one. Who is he?_

Coal black eyes glaring at the older man, Kakashi felt impatience run through him when he realized the Hokage was not merely 'requesting'. It was an order. And as a shinobi, Kakashi had no choice but to comply.

"Very well, ANBU-san." Kakashi said coldly.

"Good." Clearly deciding his task was done, the ANBU shunshin-ed away.

Having the oddest feeling that the man before him was _amused_, Kakashi opened the door reluctantly wider. No doubt the ANBU was still hanging around to see what Kakashi would do. Shady weirdoes. "Come in," He growled impatiently at the pink-haired girl and blonde boy that were hesitantly standing behind the man.

Taking off his sandals smoothly, the older man smiled cheerfully, "Yo."

As soon as he said that, Kakashi could already feel contempt well up inside of him. Whatever the Hokage was thinking, this was going to be a very long week (or however long this hellish stay-over was going to be).

"I'm Hatake Urushi, as that nice little ANBU told us," He eye-smiled (that was the only thing that was visible, with a black mask and slanted hitai-ate covering everything else). Kakashi stiffened—usually you didn't trust people who you couldn't see their faces (though by now he wasn't really one to speak).

Kakashi stared hard at Urushi. Were masks some sort of thing between Hatakes? (And Kakashi had been thinking himself clever for creating that idea after that man's disgusting disgrace). Either way, Urushi's face a mask of calm, not just the parts that were covered. Behind him, the pink-haired kunoichi displayed more knowledge of manners and didn't plop herself on the couch like she owned the place (like a certain silver-haired man who was practically draped over the sofa right now. . .).

Bowing, the girl spoke, "I'm Haruno Sasami. Pleased to meet you Kakashi-sen—san." Kakashi's ears perked at her slip up. _Sen? Odd. All these people are weird. Now for the weirdest of them all_, Kakashi's emotionless eyes switched to the orange-jumpsuit boy. He cringed under Kakashi's blank stare. _Useless. Let's see what he's got._

"U-Uzumaki Arashi!" He shouted proudly, voice cracking slightly. _Mhm. . . . He's the Uzumaki from before. He doesn't look very much like Kushina. . . . At least Kushina knows a fearsome right hook._

"Hn." Kakashi's vocal acknowledgement of the three reflected his impression of them. Said impression was not very high (they were somewhere next to a specific black-haired goggle-wielding Uchiha).

"Where should we stay?" Urushi asked cheerfully.

Kakashi shrugged the question off apathetically. "I don't care. Just stay _out _of the upstairs rooms."

Naturally the orange-clad boy (Arashi was it?) was the one to ask. "What's upstairs?" Kakashi could already imagine the gears clicking away in his mind, trying to plan the best way to sneak upstairs (good luck about that—with Jiriaya's help Kakashi had set up seals and booby-traps to prevent unwanted visitors from entering the room).

"My . . . bedroom." Kakashi said. No way in Kami-sama was he telling _him _about the study (he rather openly accept Gai as his 'friend'). Kakashi sensed sympathy waft off of Urushi. _Shut up. I don't need your help. Where were you when _he _left? _He growled in contempt.

Breaking into the awkward silence, Urushi spoke up again, "Thanks, we'll be taking the spare bedroom. Come on guys." They headed down the hallway.

It only later occurred to Kakashi that he'd never told Urushi where the spare bedroom was.

* * *

Minato waited patiently at the foot of a large oak tree.

He was at the normal training field his genin team (sans one grumpy silver-haired chunin) practiced at. Rin came to the field first; politely greeting Minato as she awkwardly fiddled with her hands and joined him in waiting for the boys.

Minato had started feeling worried about the grumpy chunin after a half-hour passed. There was a gut feeling inside that something bad was going to happen. Sure the chunin was confined to his house, but today Minato had skipped visiting Kakashi.

The boy had seemed upset about behind kept inside because of his ankle, but would he really do something stupid?

Perhaps Minato was just being paranoid (a trait that was not necessarily a bad thing in shinobi life. A paranoid shinobi was usually one that was still alive).

Minato almost felt like going out to check on Kakashi just to calm himself when a figure teleported in front of him. Sunlight dappling across the smooth pearly white mask, the ANBU agent stared emotionlessly up at Minato. He felt a slight shiver up his spine—ANBU had never been his specialty as a kid. Some people had believed and suggested he joined the ANBU, but Minato could tell that he wouldn't have fit among the masked faces well. Never had, and never would (not to mention his blonde hair was rather noticeable even if his face was hidden).

Clearing his throat uncertainty, Minato addressed him, "Ah, yes . . . ?" Even though his reputation as the 'Yellow Flash' since he decoded the _Hiraishin_, Minato couldn't help but feel awkward as the blank porcelain masks stared in him (it was just like when Jiriaya's teammate, Orrochimaru stared at him—there was a sensation that something was boring into your soul).

"The shinobi under your command, Hatake Kakashi, is currently occupied. He has received certain guests and will not be coming due to this."

_The shinobi under your command. _Minato swallowed thickly, _children grow up too quickly_. But, onto larger matters—who were these guests? (Mostly he was relieved nothing happened to Kakashi). "Who are these . . . guests?"

"You are not high enough of clearance to know," was the stony response.

Minato's brow furrowed in coolly contained annoyance, "I've practically been his guardian, shouldn't I know?!"

"I wasn't aware of you being his legal guardian," The ANBU's voice dripped with cold-hearted glee.

_That sick-minded bastard. _Minato glanced to Rin, who was leaning against a tree a fair way away, but it was clear she was trying to not (but failing) to listen in on their heated discussion.

It was a known fact that he was over-protective of his students, especially with Kakashi after Sakumo, and he'd made sure his other students didn't learn of Sakumo. It was enough that Kakashi and Obito were always boiling ready for an argument—what would happen to his team if they learned of his father? The ANBU was practically making a situation that Minato had to talk about Sakumo's death to show how he had been taking care of Kakashi.

"Never mind," Minato said vehemently. After all, he could just go to Kakashi and ask the chunin who his 'guests' were. "Thank you for the information." _Now go away._

The ANBU was only all too willing to leave, shunshin-ing away.

Rubbing his temple wearily with a hand, Minato muttered incoherently to himself. Opening his eyes, he stared at Rin who looked ready to leave already. "I'm guessing you've assumed what I'm going to say—practice is canceled, yes."

"Um . . . sensei? Is it about . . ." Rin's delicate features were highlighted with red as she blushed furiously, "Uh, K-Kakashi?" Get her on a battlefield with a few bleeding and dying shinobi and the girl was as cool-headed and strict as the veteran medic-nins (technically Rin could be called a veteran, _all _of Team Minato could be, but Minato didn't want to think of them like that) but talk about her (not-so-secret) crush on Kakashi and you got a stuttering mess.

"Yeah. I won't take up any more of your time Rin, you have the rest of the day free," Minato nodded to her.

She took the dismissal graciously, "Okay. I have some extra rounds at the hospital anyways. Especially with the war going on, there's never a full staff. . . ." Her voice trailed off in a wistful sort of way, a voice of one who'd lived in war, in pain, for far too long. The voice of one who wanted _out_ of that pain. _Children _were not supposed to sound like that, Minato shivered—almost.

Before Rin could notice his involuntary cringe, Minato molded chakra to the seal written oh-so carefully onto the kunai in his pocket. Activating the seal, he was transported out of the area with his _Hiraishin no Jutsu_ to the seal he had discretely placed inside Kakashi's house (had the boy known about it, next time Minato would probably have to do quite a bit of dancing and dodging to escape the traps the boy would've set up).

Minato could _feel _it.

Violently forcing his chakra through the walls and around the house, Minato frantically looked for Kakashi. There was the silver-haired boy in the room, but in what condition? He could sense three strangers with medium amounts of chakra. Focusing his chakra, Minato identified two males and a female. Even with the _Hiraishin _he wasn't sure he could beat three shinobi in the Hatake compound. Not the ideal battleground.

Then there was a thump and a shout. An angry, cornered-animal sort of shout.

The hairs on the back of Minato's neck raised with all the speed and reaction of a concerned parent. That voice: _Kakashi._

Abandoning any sort of rational thinking, Minato slammed the door open. There could have been a raining hail of kunai falling towards Minato and he would not have stopped. Three enemy shinobi, four enemy shinobi—what was the difference?

Kakashi mattered more than any old musty house. Kakashi was a _breathing _being that thought and felt—that was hundreds of times more important than everything else in Minato's book at the moment and he intended to keep Kakashi that way.

But, for all the great tales of the Yellow Flash that there were, nothing prepared Minato for the sight he was beholding. There was Kakashi (very much alive and breathing, thank you very much) screaming angrily at an orange-clothed (one word for Minato: _what?_) blonde who was cringing in a terrified manner on the couch.

"Sorry about that," A man waved cheerfully at Minato with a smile to rival Minato's (except for the fact he couldn't really see it due to a rather view-obstructing mask).

Minato bit back a gasp, and could almost ignore the other rather chaotic scene unraveling in the same room.

_Sakumo?_

* * *

Meanwhile at the training field a certain black-haired goggle-wielding Uchiha was waiting around irritated.

They all called him bad at time keeping, yet here he was—before _all _of them, even, Obito thought with glee, _Kakashi_. That gray haired bastard couldn't say anything against Obito anymore!

Glaring angrily at the log (pretending it was Kakashi) Obito stared at the target post in an expression he believed to be quite intimidating (now, if he had a mirror, he too would've agreed with the Kakashi in his mind that kept saying he looked constipated, but alas, he didn't).

But in his defense, this was his only way of passing time. There wasn't anything else to do. No Minato-sensei to pester and ask useless questions to, no Baka-shi to irritate and annoy, and no Rin to (awkwardly) flirt to.

The _one _time he was at practice before Kakashi (that annoying, stuck-up prick he was) there was no one to gloat at. Obito kicked at a rock, "Stupid Kakashi." He felt a slight bit of his frustration fizz away. _Yeah, it's all Kakashi's fault._

Needless to say, Obito didn't have much trouble entertaining himself after that.

After all, dubbing things 'Kakashi' then kicking them around was quite the game.

* * *

Pulling out a kunai, Minato's sharp blue eyes bore into the man.

The small part in Kakashi that stayed a child was currently rocking around in a corner crying. He was wailing out to the blonde who was anything but the comforting shoulder he had relied on before. _Minato-sensei! Don't you remember? It's me! Kakashi!_

But he couldn't do that. His teammates—his current ones—needed him now and he had to be that reliable rock (a ramen loving rock) that Minato had been for him.

Kakashi forced a grin, "Um, I hope that wasn't expensive." Being the person who lived here before (a rather meticulous person at that) he knew that the vase hadn't been especially valuable.

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto. Kakashi knew she wouldn't harm the boy in front of the others (she actually had a functioning reasoning system unlike one knuckleheaded orange-clad shinobi. . .) but she didn't hide her annoyance. "You _baka _Arashi! We've only been here for five minutes and you've broken something?!"

Minato ignored them and glanced towards the one who posed a possible threat. "Who are you?"

"My idiot uncle," Kakashi sighed, annoyed. His dark eyes glared at everywhere at once and Minato remembered with amusement how the poor boy was stuck inside (on his orders of course). Even though his genin team could be a load of trouble, it was still adorable when they bickered (albeit a bit annoying).

"Hatake Urushi. Yo," The silver-haired man smiled jauntily, looking quite pleased with himself.

"Namikaze Minato." Minato nodded his head. "And . . . who are your . . . friends?" He smiled awkwardly; after all, it wouldn't do any good to be hostile with strangers. And if he could stand Suna-shinobi that stunk of foul-smelling poisons and dusty sand, he could stand Urushi. (Though the small voice of fashion that Kushina had implanted in his mind screaming '_who wears bright orange jumpsuits?_' wasn't the most helpful)

"Uzumaki N-Arashi!" The blonde boy proclaimed proudly blatantly showing off his outfit. He'd probably scream it to the whole village of Konoha if he could. No, Minato decided, forget Konoha—the whole world.

"Haruno Sasami, it's pleased to meet you," The pink-haired kunoichi bowed politely, her emerald eyes scanning over him through her fallen pink bangs. "Thank you for lodging us." Minato could sense wariness vibrating off of her.

Minato raised an eyebrow at Kakashi. The grumpy boy gave a (reluctant) nod. They were allowed to be here (probably not by Kakashi's consent. The boy wouldn't even lend a hand to a drowning kitten if it mewled in his face).

Minato relaxed. Slightly.

"Well, since it's a bit late for today, tomorrow would you like to join us for training?" Minato invited cautiously. _Keep your friends close, enemies closer_.

Urushi shrugged, flak jacket sighing along with his shoulders. "I suppose."

"Minato-sensei, am I off house arrest?" Kakashi asked bluntly, pleading tone almost begging Minato not to leave him alone with his uncle.

Minato laughed and ruffled the chunin's hair. "Fine, but no strenuous activity yet, okay?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes, but in his eyes Minato could see he was eager to get out of the dusty house.

Minato felt a twinge of guilt inside of him, it wasn't good for the boy to be stuck in the house—surrounding himself with the memories wasn't going to bring Sakumo back and Minato didn't want to see Kakashi turn bitter from wallowing in the past. He'd seen too many fellow shinobi go down that path. That would be the ultimate pain—knowing after everything Minato had done to help Kakashi, that it was all for nothing.

* * *

"Yosh! Today we'll be playing capture the flag shinobi-style!" Minato clapped like a child. "You'll be splitting into teams and Urushi and I will be monitoring you guys."

"Shinobi-style?" Obito asked, always the critique.

Minato grinned broadly, "Basically with weapons, jutsu, and traps! Okay, teams! Kakashi and Sasami, you'll be one group."

Sasami looked surprised and her emerald eyes darted from her sensei to Kakashi, thinking hard. _Perhaps she never knew her sensei had a nephew_, Minato reasoned.

Kakashi on the other hand wasn't as gracious in the news. "Why do I have to be with _her_?" he growled. "I don't need help. At the very least put me with Rin, she's a somewhat-capable medic."

Minato's eyes hardened, "Kakashi, you will _not_ talk like that to your comrades."

"After all," Urushi broke in, "Sometimes they'll step in when you least expect it. Teamwork when you all have each other's backs is one of the strongest strategies."

Minato nodded curtly, "Precisely."

Sasami was not as relaxed about Kakashi's comment though, slapping the boy on the face. "I'm a fine medic!" She growled, healing the bruise marks on Kakashi's cheek for good measure.

It, however, didn't take away the initial sting and the silver haired chunin muttered apology.

A blonde eyebrow raised in quiet admiration. Sometimes, Minato amended, violence was useful. He had never seen Kakashi apologize so quickly. Perhaps that was the secret to Kakashi's almost fearful (yet surprisingly polite) approach to Kushina.

Minato cleared his throat softly and all eyes returned to him. "As I was saying, the teams. Next, Obito and Arashi. Rin, you'll stay out for this round. You'll be a spectator, feel free to observe others and see what traps they've got lined up. You'll switch in next time."

Rin's concerned brown eyes darted from Kakashi to Obito, who both wore scowls and were glaring at each other. "But sensei!" She protested. Despite being more quiet-spoken than her teammates, that wasn't to say she wasn't willing to take her fair share of the work.

Minato held up a placating hand, "It's nothing to do with your ability, Rin." Minato reconsidered his words. "Well, actually it does. Since you're the smallest and will most likely be able to sneak around undetected, you will most likely be chosen for spontaneous espionage tasks on missions. Try make sure Kakashi, Obito, Arashi, and Sasami can't detect you during the rounds. Being a medic will require you to be light-footed, and as a medic you will usually be less equipped with weaponry. This is valuable training so don't waste it!" Minato warned, sealing his proclamation with a bright grin that reassured her.

"Yes sensei," Rin spoke, ashamed in her outburst.

"It's fine," Minato ruffled her hair. "Everyone likes to know they're doing their part."

Urushi nodded quietly. It was amazing, Kakashi mused, how easily Minato had dealt with his team. The man had managed to calm waters between Obito and himself when Rin couldn't, reassuring Rin when she did doubt herself, and managed to control Obito and Kakashi. Not only that, then the man had gone on to be one of the most memorable Hokages. Kakashi silently applauded his old mentor.

"Now, onto the task itself." Minato was back to business—this was the man who had become the Hokage, and he knew how to lead. "Each team will have a flag. You can chose where to put you flag, but it must be inside the training field perimeters and clearly exposed! So no burying it Obito! You are allowed to keep guards directly at the flag, and any number of traps is allowed. Anything goes, _except for_—"

Minato was cut off by Obito muttering to Rin, "Does that defy the purpose of _everything goes_?"

He froze when he realized Minato was glaring pointedly at him. "Uh, carry on," Obito squeaked.

"I will," Minato grumbled, rolling his eyes. "_Except _for the fact that you can _only _use what you have on you now. Anyone who brings in gear will be disqualified and has to pay for ramen next time we go!" Paying was a daunting task with both Minato and Obito and that single sentence had raised the stakes, even the 'unmovable' Hatake Kakashi stiffened. Because prodigy or no, he still got average chunin pay and while eating, Minato and Obito payed to heed to restraint.

"Anyways. Ready?" Minato called out, always one for dramatics.

Kakashi, Sasami, Obito, and Arashi tensed, muscles bunched to spring into the trees.

Urushi glanced at everyone with a lone eye. He had his bets on Sakura and himself. Not that he doubted Naruto, but . . . .

"Set, _go_!" Minato shouted and the four figures sprang away.

"_May the best team win!_"


	3. 3: Stumbling

**Not dead yet.**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Kakashi glared at his pink-haired partner with disdain. "Don't slow me down," he growled as they made their way to the far end of the fenced in training field. The area was thickly forested and Kakashi was sure even the girl he had as a partner could hide it significantly well. After all, he had to go after the flag before the two idiots prepared something.

Sakura scowled, resisting the urge to punch the brat. Remember, she told herself, sensei has to have at least one of his own eyes in the future. "I'm not planning on it," She growled, pushing the dark green Konoha flag into the ground with more force than necessary.

"Hn," Kakashi muttered back, sounding scarily like Sasuke. "You guard—I'm going to get the other flag."

"Wait—" Sakura protested, making to grab the silver-haired chunin, but he dodged.

"Set up some good traps," He called back.

The nerve! Sakura thought, fishing shuriken and wire out of her weapons pouch. "Might as well set up some traps," She muttered to herself. "Geez."

She was going to rant to Kakashi-sensei the next she saw him, because by Kami-sama he was a brat. Sensing a chakra presence nearby, Sakura looked behind her into the underbrush, "I can sense you Rin." She called out, smiling unwillingly. While the boy half of Kakashi-sensei's team could use some work, Sakura had a special fondness for the fellow medical nin.

"Oh darn!" Rin grinned sheepishly, "Hey Sasami!"

* * *

Hatake Kakashi was bored.

Sitting lazily on a tree branch, he looked down on the two girls, Icha-Icha preciously clutched tightly in his hand. Scratching his chin idly, Kakashi let out a yawn and compared the two.

When he had first been introduced to Team Seven, Kakashi had immediately associated Sasuke with himself, Naruto with Obito, and Sakura with Rin. Upon later introductions at the rooftop however, he had been forced to reevaluate his guess.

While Rin had been intelligent, she hadn't been at the top of the class like Sakura. She did, however, have much more practical skills, such as medical ninjutsu and a clear head through battle. While sensei had managed to finally get her with a cleverly hidden genjutsu, she hadn't collapsed at the mere sight of a bloodied teammate.

Other than their heritage of civilian families, medical ninjutsu, and unnecessary crushes on unappreciative people, Kakashi had failed to see further resemblance. In fact, after the first month of meeting Team Seven, it had disgusted him that he ever compared Rin to the weak and helpless Sakura.

But currently, as Kakashi watched Sakura set up traps while Rin watched, he understood how they were similar. While their skill sets varied, it was the underlying confidence and strength that made them match. While it hadn't taken long for Sakura to start blooming under Tsunade's tutelage (Kakashi still regretted not giving her the deserved attention he should've) and become the self-confident young woman she was today, Rin had only started to show it through the war.

Too bad her career had ended by Kakashi's hand.

Rubbing his right hand unconsciously, Kakashi grimaced and looked down upon the girl who had once loved him. I'll protect you this time Rin. For Obito and me.

And far off into the distance, explosive tags lit.

* * *

Kakashi smirked, glancing back.

Now that the girl was out the way, he could try finding the other team's flag. Knowing that Obito was on it, he knew that the flag couldn't be too difficult to find. And from what he had seen, Arashi was a weak one too.

Great job Minato-sensei—put all the idiots together; Kakashi allowed himself a small smile under his mask, makes it easier for me.

However, as soon as Kakashi ran into a clearing with fallen trees around, two explosive tags blew up in his face. Leaping back and shielding his face from splinters, the chunin spat out a curse. He hadn't sensed the tags and two large chakra presences suddenly appeared.

Kakashi berated his laziness. Both chakra amounts were ridiculously large—Arashi being an Uzumaki and Obito having the stores of an Uchiha. The true question though was if they actually knew how to use them.

"We knew you'd come around this way!" Obito shouted proudly, "Told you Arashi!" Arashi's laughter in response completely gave away their positions, and Kakashi wondered to himself (not for the first time) how the heck did they ever become shinobi.

The cool blade of a kunai slid easily into Kakashi's fingers and he crouched into a ready position. He frowned noticeably under his mask. Two idiots? Minato-sensei really needed to start challenging him more. Injured ankle or no, these fools would be nothing, Kakashi concluded.

"Hm, I'm not sure I really like that face of his, Arashi," Obito grinned mischievously.

Naruto grinned eagerly, "Oh no. It's rather bland. You know what his hair reminds me of?" He was secretly proud of Obito and his quickly planned prank—because if Uzumaki Naruto couldn't get past his sensei's reflexes in the present, he would just time travel back and do it to his sensei's past self.

"What?" Obito answered methodically, innocence shining on his face.

"A blank canvas," Arashi grinned, revealing wide canine-like teeth. Slapping his hands together into a messy seal (Kakashi reviewed the aforementioned question of his) and slamming chakra into his palms, he unleashed a tide of chakra-enhanced bright pink paint.

Obito and Arashi, while being slightly incompetent shinobi (especially in one silver haired chunin's mind) there was no doubt that they were geniuses in the sense of pranking. Despite being from different generations, both inspired a feeling of fear and well-hidden awe in the wake of their pranks.

Leaping away in time, Kakashi threw away his useless hot pink-stained kunai in disgust. Landing with speckles of paint, he commended himself on a rather good job on avoiding the wave of pink death.

"Um, don't count yourself lucky yet, Baka-shi," Obito smirked, placing his hand in the pink puddle, pouring chakra in. Shimmering chakra activated explosive tags that had been previously concealed under the ground sparked into existence. Carefully written seals were written on the papers in Arashi and Obito's messy handwritten.

Messy? Yes. Ineffective?

Ask Kakashi that.

A profanity was halfway out of Kakashi's masked lips when the tags exploded.

* * *

Sakura and Rin sat in the shade, Sakura keeping a close eye on the flag in the clearing. Surrounded by tripwire, shuriken, and some spare explosive tags, she was pretty sure it was safe, but with shinobi—even genin—better safe than sorry.

"Eh? You've met Tsuande-sh-sama?" Sakura stopped herself from saying shishou at the end of her master's name. In this timeline she had yet to meet her and secretly she hoped to meet the woman—it would be amusing to show her how much Sakura knew with seemingly no training.

Rin looked delighted, "You've heard of her?"

"Oh, um yeah, Urushi-sensei has told us about the Sannin before!" Sakura explained herself quickly.

"Oh, well, occasionally when she dropped by a bit she would give a lecture or two to the medics," Rin's face was filled with awe. "She's so amazing—did you know that she was the one who demanded a medic nin be placed on each team?"

Of course she knew. Tsunade was her shishou, after all.

But for conversational sake, Sakura plastered an interested grin on her face, "Really?"

"Yeah, Arashi and Urushi-sensei are lucky to have you!" Rin said softly, in her shy voice she sighed, "I wish I was as good as you were. I can tell you're an amazing medic…" her voice trailed off.

Seeing no response from Sakura, Rin confided softly, "Last week . . . on one of the side battle stations, our team was sent and I . . . I couldn't save this chunin, and—" Rin's tearing voice was cut off by Sakura's reply.

"Rin—there's always a first time, and it will happen." Embracing the shaking girl, Sakura reassured her gently, confidence lacing her voice in the way she had learned from Tsunade.

"The thing about us medics is that we have to be strong. Sure it may seem we're only needed when someone's hurt—but that's not it. We're the pillars of a team. And you have to stay strong, because without us our teams are nothing Rin."

Rin's eyes widened. As clichéd as it sounded, she had never thought of that before, being with the unreachable child-prodigy Kakashi and, in his own way, genius trickster Obito (who was, to boot, an Uchiha), Rin had often found herself feeling out of her depth. Because Rin was just Rin.

Nohara Rin, child of a civilian family, who had joined the Shinobi Academy on whim of her whining ex-friends (who had dropped out at soon as taijutsu had been mentioned). She had never thought of herself as anything but average. Even being a medic had mostly been because of the necessity the war had imposed. And compared to those like Tsunade, she was clearly still a novice.

"Without… us," She repeated uncertainly.

"Yes, without us. Because do you know what happens to idiots like Arashi and Obito without us?" Despite the idiot being said in affectionate terms, Sasami's next words were grimmer, "They die. Even people like Kakashi aren't invincible." Warmth spread inside Sakura as she warmed up to her spontaneous inspirational speech.

Something had been empty inside Sakura for a while. By no way was she not trying her hardest in her career, nor was it to say that she was depressed, but something had definitely been missing. Having perplexed civilian parents didn't help, nor did Ino's tiny insults that added up. Perhaps it had been caused by Sasuke's defection, or maybe even just being compared to the sheer willpower of Naruto.

But looking at Rin's innocent face looking at awe at her, Sakura felt that something inside her shrink.

"They need us, Rin." Sakura felt a smile slide onto her face, both for Rin and herself. And suddenly she realized that the confidence behind the words spewing from her was not from Tsunade, but herself.

"Yeah," Rin grinned back hesitantly, "I suppose they do."

* * *

Minato stared at the five teenagers assembled in front of him and sighed with an unusual amount of disappointment for the sunshine-haired bundle of joy that was the Yellow Flash (at least by how others saw him). "You guys realize that no one got a flag?"

Kakashi, drenched in pink despite multiple water-dousing jutsus (courtesy of Minato), frowned and picked out a flake of dried paint from his slicked-down hair.

Sasami sent a dark stare towards the Hatake.

Noticing a possible upcoming threat, Minato hurried on, "So, can you guys tell me what you did wrong?"

"Eh? Wrong! We worked together~(da)ttebayo!" Arashi shouted in disbelief, sounding exactly like Kushina. Minato shuddered should Arashi ever meet Kushina. From what he could tell, the two loved ramen more than him.

"Ah, yes, you did," Minato conceded, "And surprisingly well. However, you didn't follow the objective and instead just attacked Kakashi."

Obito muttered something that sounded dangerously like 'the little punk deserved it.'

"Sasami and Rin, you shouldn't have just been talking, though I understand Kakashi didn't really give you another option," The blonde gave Kakashi the evil glare that assured a talk later. The pink-stained chunin groaned once more, both at this and his atrocious appearance. Even his beloved mask was covered.

"Since no one actually won and everyone technically lost. . . Urushi! Why don't you pay?"

Kakashi snapped to attention, having been daydreaming after hearing Sakura and Rin's conversation. "Hm?"

"Hey! Urushi-sensei! You're buying lunch right?" Arashi shouted obnoxiously loud, glee evident in his voice.

Kakashi suddenly regretted not paying attention. Because now he would be paying in money. Deep inside his pocket, Kakashi's dark leathery wallet sobbed metaphorical tears.

* * *

**A/N: Yes, I know. That ending was incredibly cheesy and I have not updated in some seven months . . . yeah, sorry about that.**

**However! GOOD NEWS! I've got a beta now to (hopefully) whip my procrastinating butt into writing faster! So thank you so much _Rika24 _for answering my (let's be honest here) plea for a beta! (hey you guys should be thanking her)**

**Secondly, I'd just like to thank you guys to consistently following this rather cliched story (really, timetravel and team 7- you guys are too much). I'm sorry if I don't always update this too fast, yet I do so for _Akatsuki Brothers_\- this is just because_ Akatsuki Brothers_ is slightly more original and I'm fairly interested in how that goes. **

**Anyways, thanks for dropping by guys,**

**-Sumei1**


	4. 4: Walking

**Chapter 4**

Kakashi pushed open the window quietly, glancing back at his sleeping students for a moment. Naruto was sprawled on his mattress, blanket tossed aside, and Sakura was curled in on herself, cuddling the blanket. It was strange to see how peaceful they looked, fists unclenched and faces relaxed from emotion.

Sliding it shut once more, the silver-haired jounin lept to the ground with a chakra-muffled landing. Shoving his hands into his pockets (it was too dark to read), he strolled down the deserted Konoha dirt streets, breathing in the clean air through his mask like a drowned man. _Home_.

Letting his mind guide him, Kakashi was surprised to see himself at the gates of the Uchiha compound, no longer empty. As Kakashi stepped towards Obito's home, he was unsettled that no Uchiha came to stop him, but perhaps they didn't care if a 'failure' Uchiha died. Kakashi scowled at the thought.

The crisp night air whistled throughout the village, blowing past walls with painted-on Uchiha fans. Kakashi peered through the window of Obito's room, amused to see the black-haired genin was still awake, furiously reading a book, muttering 'beat Kakashi next time'. Evidently Obito's pink vengeance hadn't been fulfilling enough.

Kakashi scratched his (decidedly silver) hair idly, that hadn't happened the first time around. Probably had to do with Naruto's existence.

Muting out his chakra signature, Kakashi settled down, simply enjoying seeing the _aliveness _of his former teammate. Every moment was precious. Every repetitive movement never got old and Kakashi felt his eye (his own) water.

_Darn him, _the silver-haired jounin rubbed his eye, _he should really clean his room. Dust in my eye. . . ._

* * *

"Checkmate," The Sandaime Hokage puffed his pipe good-naturedly, "Maybe next time Minato."

"Hokage-sama—" The blond started but the aged man in front of him raised a weathered hand.

He gave a grin, "I understand why you're here. It's about the guest team, yes?"

"Yes. They do not . . . worry me, merely there's something unsettling about them. They don't appear to be a threat, however Urushi . . . . Something about that man is just..." Minato's voice trailed off and he offered a weak hand gesture.

A trail of sweet-smelling smoke rose from Hiruzen's pipe. "Indeed— he seems familiar doesn't he?"

"I suppose it's to be expected if he's truly Sakumo's brother," Minato sighed, frowning slightly at the thought of Kushina's (terrifying) late sensei. After a period of silence, he stood up and hesitantly made to leave.

"That's not the only thing you came here for," The Sandaime spoke out as Minato laid his hand on the door (using which was a rarity among the Konoha shinobi, to the Sandaime's dismay).

"No," Minato agreed. "Keep an eye on Arashi."

Hiruzen hummed in response, smoking his pipe quietly. "He looks similar to you."

"That's why," Minato made an uncharacteristic scowl, "It's suspicious. A man claiming to be Kakashi's relative comes along with a boy who looks like me and a girl with stunning medical skills. I don't like it."

Because Namikaze Minato, despite him seeming like a bright sunflower compared to his war-hardened friends, wasn't stupid. No, the man who would soon be known as the Yellow Flash was far from it. And he was determined to figure out _where _the strange group came from.

"Oh, Minato," The Sandaime called out for the last time, "You know the council won't accept immunity for long— they're going to demand your team go onto the war front eventually as well as definitive data on that team." His voice was regretful.

"I . . . understand." Minato responded stiffly, leaving.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi _really _didn't want to get out of his hiding spot. He could hear the shouting behind him and prayed that his home wasn't torn apart.

After some blank-faced ANBU had come by and delivered a message to stay in the Hatake Compound until further notice; he had counted the days mentally and concluded it was probably the chunin exams (them being considered foreigners likely wouldn't be allowed to view the exams). After that, Kakashi had instructed Naruto to find the cabinet where the few board games the Hatake family owned were stashed (because a bored Naruto was by _far_ much worse than Kakashi himself being bored), and Sakura and Naruto had played until the current situation arose.

It had been supposed to be a simple game of shogi.

However when there was team 7 (even if it was just three-fourths of it) involved, things were rarely as simple as intended. Kakashi stared mournfully at what used to be the living room. Certainly not much living had ever been done there, but now there probably wouldn't be much living in the room at all in the near future either.

* * *

"I want a better mission than _this_!" Obito wailed, tossing up weeds in denial. "I can't take it anymore! I'm going to become the _Hokage_ not a gardener! Anything but more D ranks, sensei have _pity _on us!"

At that moment Minato almost crumbled himself, looking at the desolate expressions of Rin and Kakashi (the later begrudgingly agreeing with his teammate) and the fact his team was actually all in favor of the decision, which was a rarity in itself. However, the Hokage's words still rang sharp in his mind and he steeled himself against the puppy eyes of his team.

"Come on guys! More weeding less whining!" The Yellow Flash gave a sparkling demonic grin and the unsaid threat of extra laps in later practices shut the genin and chunin up.

Hasty cries of "yes sensei!" were flung out as the trio quickly bent down to continue the D-rank gardening mission.

Minato did his best to smile at the situation, but his attention was more focused on the paper that was being crumpled in his fist at the moment. The Namikaze forced himself to unclench his fingers, rereading the request (read, _order_) by the Sandaime Hokage.

Running his fingers through blond hair, Minato swallowed thickly. _Just a little more time . . . _he thought to himself, quietly denying the facts he knew. It was war and team 7 was one of the stronger genin teams, but due to previous laws made by the Shodai Hokage, they would only be eligible to be sent to the war front if they were chunin or above. Hence the bent printed office paper in Minato's hand.

_OFFICAL NOTICE TO ALL JOUNIN SENSEIS_

_Date: August 15__th_

_Due to further issues with Iwagakure [village hidden by rocks] and Kusogakure [village hidden in the grass](and possible interference by Kumogakure [village hidden in the clouds]) the war has escalated to larger proportions, now gaining status as the Third Shinobi World War. Due to this, the annual chunin exams have been brought around sooner than normal, with participation mandatory. Because of diplomatic relations and the current security protocol, it will only be limited to Konoha genin. Teams have three weeks to prepare for the exams._

_All Jounin sensei report to the Hokage's office on the 20__th_ _to confirm and receive statistics and duties._

_If you're a Jounin without a genin team and interested in volunteering for exams, please see the Hokage's office for paperwork and further information._

_Approved by: Sandaime Hokage; Sarutobi Hiruzen_

Minato's fingers bit into his palm. Once, in the second shinobi war, Minato had heard that things had gotten this desperate before, however, three weeks was far too sudden. A month would've been preferred, but, _war is war_, Minato thought bitterly. Either way, he'd make sure his team was ready.

He'd be darned if something happened to them that Minato could've helped them against.

* * *

"Idiot." Kakashi muttered scathingly at his right foot shot out and gave a bruising blow to Obito's side. The Uchiha spluttered something in reply, barely dodging another fist headed towards his face.

"How dare you! I have an _amazing _face!" Obito cried out, returning a few kicks to his partner. "Anyways—nice hair _pinkie_!"

Despite what the Hatake would like to believe, in reality the Uchiha and him were quite close in taijutsu, matching blow for blow, both eventually ending up panting with equal amounts of bruising.

This time around, Kakashi tripped over an exposed rock, falling to the Uchiha's mercy. However, Obito hesitated at his teammate's backside and soon found himself in a chokehold (a rather awkward position, the silver-haired chunin being a good three inches shorter than Obito) because of it. "Don't give the enemy chances. Idiot." Kakashi added on for good measure (though his fearsome expression was discredited by the fact he was only a teenager and had pink-grey hair).

Minato sighed and Rin gave a slight smile from her position on the ground, where she was reading a thick medical tome. "Boys, play nice," the blond admonished. "Anyways. There's something I need to tell you all."

The three straightened, aware that when their sensei wanted to say something, it probably was something they needed to know.

Minato looked at their faces with a sense of nervousness. How would Kushina tell them? _It would probably include flying pots and pans and screaming—equal amounts from both Kushina and genin_. Minato abruptly ended that train of thought. No wonder the redhead had never been given a team.

"You have all grown strong," Minato felt that was a good way of starting. "And so I've signed Rin and Obito up for the chunin exams!" Minato gave a winning grin. Looks of surprise, apprehension, and fear at the implications flashed across the two faces (after all, like all rookies, they had heard terrifying tales of the deadly tests of the chunin exams).

"Sensei . . . you're really bad at giving news," Kakashi uncharacteristically spoke up, deadpan expression.

"It's okay Kakashi, we all know you're just upset about your hair," Minato couldn't help but adopt a knowing and accepting look, ruffling the chunin's hair.

"W-_what_?!" Kakashi squawked indignantly.

Rin's soft laugh was masked by Obito's more boisterous howls of amusement.

Minato smiled at the three. Yes, they were shinobi under his command, warriors and killers, but they were also his friends. Family.

* * *

"Ah, Minato you've arrived," The Hokage puffed on his pipe calmly, kneeling at a low-table. Thirteen jounin, counting Minato, assembled in front of the Hokage in neat rows, clad in Konoha flak jackets and hitai-ates.

A secretary sat behind the Hokage, muttering softly under her breath: "minutes… three… Namikaze Minato; Team Seven..."

"Good, all of you are here. As of this Saturday, there are two more weeks till the chunin exams. Because of short notice, we'll be reusing most of last years' exams."

One of the jounin shuddered, "Don't tell me Mitarashi'll be there."

"Yes, Mitrarashi-san did volunteer for the second round, which, as most of you know, includes a task within the Forest of Death." Hiruzen intertwined his fingers together. "Any other issues?"

A bold jounin with dark sunglasses (_an Aburame_, Minato figured) stepped forward, "Hokage-sama, this is _ridiculous_." Silence enveloped the room. "My genin have only been such for nine months and you wish to throw them into a hellish series of tests, and should they survive, send them to a near-certain death on the front?" Despite the words, the Aburame still delivered his argument with a level tone and Minato half wanted to join him.

Thinking of Rin and Obito, who had at least been genin for two years, Minato silently sympathized with the man.

Hiruzen's face turned stern, recently appearing wrinkles making him appear older than he was. "Aburame-san, do not doubt your team so much. I wouldn't be ordering it mandatory if it would just be needless slaughter." The Hokage assured him, smoke wafting from his pipe idly.

Satisfied for now, the jounin nodded and returned to his place. Despite the harshness that situations required of him, the Sandaime had gotten that position for a reason and wasn't irrational enough to sacrifice his shinobi without cause.

Minato silently let out a breath he had been holding. That could've ended bad.

" . . . continue on with matters. Make sure to hand this form to your genin . . ." Hiruzen's voice drifted back to Minato as the blond stared out the window.

He too was hesitant to let his team take the exam, but he had faith in them.

* * *

Time passed.

* * *

Team Minato met for the first time in a few weeks.

"Eh, you aren't wearing your vest Obito?" Minato grinned at the Uchiha who was proudly holding up his certificate proclaiming him Chunin.

"Nah, sensei it doesn't fit with my _style_," Obito smiled boisterously, but the grin seemed more strained than before. Minato silently realized that the Uchiha probably didn't want Obito to wear something that proclaimed his loyalty to the village over his clan, even if he was considered an outcast.

"What about you Rin?" Minato inquired to the brown-haired girl who was sitting quietly by her silver-haired teammate.

"Oh, there was a mix-up with my size and they didn't have the right flak jacket," Rin replied, tracing images in the air with a finger glowing with green medical chakra. Her progress as a medic-nin had taken leaps and bounds in the past month.

MInato nodded recognition. It hardly mattered— most shinobi during wartime didn't always wear uniform, preferring to wear their own personal gear, giving them an advantage by using gear they were familiar with as well as making it harder to affiliate them with a village to enemies.

"And what about you Kakashi? What's happened?" Minato asked.

"Hokage-sama said that I could be eligible to become Jounin." Kakashi stoically refused to look at his teammates. Despite all he had tried to prevent, the idiot Uchiha, Rin, and his sunshine-like sensei had grown on him. And jounin rarely stayed on their _genin _team.

Minato forced down a frown and made a cheery tone, "That's amazing Kakashi! Soon you might be able to lead missions!" Privately, Minato hoped that day would never come, but now with Obito and Rin promoted, he hardly had any ground to refuse missions.

After all, the war was long and still strong and his kids were growing up far too fast for his liking.

* * *

Kakashi sat at the memorial stone tracing his finger over names that were yet to be carved in. "Hello Rin. Obito. Sensei. . . Dad." Kakashi's voice was shaking slightly. Even his hailed 'genius' mind hadn't been able to wrap his head around _how _they had time travelled. But every day when his past self came back from an exhausting practice with his team, it become more real.

Too bad they hadn't come back just few years earlier. Sakumo might have been . . . . Kakashi quickly stopped that train of thought. He had come too far to fall into that ditch again.

Kakashi let out a sigh, he had to make sure his team was trusted enough to be let outside (he had only just barely snuck past the ANBU) to really change things. Perhaps Sakumo was a lost cause, but Rin, Obito, Minato, and Kushina certainly weren't.

Standing up, the silver-haired man brushed some dust off the of the black monument. "Until next time . . . guys," Kakashi walked away, leaving a bouquet of flowers and a pair of orange goggles.

An unspoken promise that things would change.

* * *

Namikaze Minato received a mission scroll, on September 23rd, detailing a sabotage mission on one Kannabi Bridge. He frowned at the words on the bottom of the page:

_It is recommended that Jounin Hatake Kakashi is given leadership periodically to test his skills in a live situation._

* * *

A twenty-nine year old Hatake Kakashi counted down days.


	5. 5: Running

**A/N: It's finally here people.**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Kakashi felt shivers up his back. Hatake Kakashi was not a normally nervous person, in his personal and shinobi life, but it was his first solo mission and pre-mission jitters were to be expected, even from the silver-haired jounin.

He was punctual as ever, the field empty but for his eccentric uncle, and it was likely that Minato-sensei would be late, as he always was.

Minutes ticked by.

The older Kakashi was silently watching himself behind his orange book, debating with himself over what to do. The rash side of the man that had never truly died off wanted to rush up to the irritable teen and scream at him not to be foolish about what he did on the mission— but the sensible side of Kakashi stopped him.

Kakashi had left Sakura and Naruto behind, the two taking their time getting ready for the day. But unlike most days, Kakashi couldn't stand to sleep in today— there was an anxious, haunted feeling of restlessness stirring up in Kakashi. He felt like if he didn't take meticulous attention of everything that occurred, Kakashi would explode. How many times he wished he was under the boulder with Obito— and now he had the chance to change everything!

" Urushi, Kakashi," Minato's smooth, mellow voice called out to the two, greeting them equally. Over the weeks, Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto had become regular sights around Konoha.

Behind Minato walked Rin and Sakura at a fairly fast pace, the two girls chatting easily. Sakura had gradually shared some medical knowledge to the purple-cheeked teenager, not knowing how, but hoping the tips would help Rin in some way. Sakura didn't know _what_ happened, but she was certain something horrible happened on the mission, if Kakashi's uncharacteristically tense attitude was anything to go by.

Naruto remained oblivious, grinning and yelling a crude joke at Obito, who wasn't late by over an hour for once.

The smaller Kakashi scowled at Obito through his dark mask, "Was there a sudden lack of elderly in Konoha this morning?" Obito, having the sense to understand that 'unmovable' Kakashi was probably somewhat strained already due to the mission, didn't reply, instead commentating on the small package clutched carefully in Rin's hands.

"What's that Rin?" Obito questioned as the group, now containing all members, set off to Konoha's borders. Konohagakure was fairly near the central area of the Land of Fire, meaning they'd have to travel far northwest to reach the Fire-Grass border, where their mission took place. The first half of the operation would be on a remote stone bridge, used by Iwagakure forces for supplies— Kakashi and his team, which consisted of the visitors and Team Minato, would destroy it to hinder enemy progress. Meanwhile, Minato would assist frontline efforts and rendezvous with Kakashi's group later.

The company stopped for a moment. Rin blushed and fiddled with the spotless wrapping that had clearly been worked on for a long time. "It's for you, Kakashi," she finally lifted her eyes from her feet to the subject at hand. "It's an emergency medical pack— you never know, you might need it." Lost in the teen's eyes, she didn't notice the older Kakashi's flinch as the small package switched owners.

Kakashi gave a stiff thanks as Minato smiled cheerfully and elbowed him purposefully. Obito made a huffing noise as the teen made an expectant gesture towards the Uchiha. "What? You think I have something for you?" Obito scowled.

If he was honest, he would've admitted he'd completely forgotten Rin's suggestion to get something for Kakashi for making jounin, but it'd slipped his notice— most of the gushing words of affection Rin used with Kakashi's name usually were. But Obito wasn't going to reveal his abstraction— feigning his regular mask of goofy stupidity, one that Kakashi was able to deal with far better, was easier to work with.

Even so, Obito felt a twinge of guilt when Rin scolded him with disappointment heavy in her voice, "Obito! We agreed that we'd get something for Kakashi!"

Minato, sensing a fight imminent, spoke up, "How about, to make up for his forgetfulness, we can all work extra hard on this mission?" The two boys rolled their eyes at their sensei, but the tactic had succeeded— no blood had been shed.

Meanwhile, Sakura was tightening her gloves, having a feeling she'd need to use them as they started moving into foreign territory. Even in the present timeline, Sakura had rarely gone into Grass' land— she was unsure of what to look for, especially during wartime. She was quietly taken aback by her sensei's old character; Kakashi seemed to be intent on showing the most unpleasant sides of his persona to the visitors.

Naruto was still giddy on being in such close proximity to his father— just yesterday Kakashi had decided it best that Naruto know. There was no point in secrets anymore, Kakashi had sighed in his lethargic, I-rather-be-reading-right-now, tone of voice. The _Fourth _Hokage was Naruto's father— Naruto couldn't help but feel satisfaction. All those times the villagers had called him some demon child from the woods, they had been more wrong than they could've imagined.

At the same time, Naruto felt a strange sense of urgency in him. He wanted nothing more to drag Minato off and hug (or punch) the man and try to make up for all the years without a father Naruto had lived. But that wasn't possible. This wasn't their timeline and Naruto still felt a longing to return to _his_ Konoha.

* * *

The sky was without clouds and after cleaning up plans, they cut their break short and continued on to Grass with chakra-boosted leaps. They ran in their steady pace for miles, running until the Fire-Grass border was long behind them and the sun was setting in the sky. As the stars began to shine in the sky and the chill of night set in, they built up camp without a fire, as the smoke would be far too noticeable from a shinobi's viewpoint.

A cold meal of packed provisions was enough and everyone slowly drifted off to sleep. Obito remained awake, unwilling to move and unable to fall asleep, feeling embarrassed by his discomfort of being so far away from home. Minato, who was on first watch, somehow sensed his student's anxiety.

Minato gently tapped Obito on the shoulder and led him away from the others' sleeping forms.

"How are you so far?" Minato whispered, blue eyes still bright in the starlight, depth added by the reflection of the night sky.

The Uchiha shrugged, jacket keeping the warmth in his limbs. "I'm alright." His thoughts, unbidden, drifted to the stormy cloud in his life named Kakashi. How was it that the teen, so ungrateful and cold, gained the most success? Obito trained hard nonstop and tried his best at even the simplest of tasks, and yet he failed to progress in the way that the Hatake was able to. Jounin at _thirteen_.

Minato smiled sadly, away from Obito's gaze. He was well aware of the love-hate (mostly hate) relationship between the male team members. "What do you think of Kakashi?"

"Do you want me to be honest?" Obito held his knees to his chest. Hearing no response, Obito continued, in a rare moment of seriousness, "I think Kakashi is arrogant, egotistical, and far too talented for his own good."

Minato ruffled Obito's hair, amusing himself by the way the younger teen moved out of his grasp. "There are reasons why he's like that."

Obito felt irritation couple with sleep-deprivation in his mind, "like what?" Obito argued.

Minato frowned, "Obito . . . ." Minato paused for a moment, considering his options, "do you know anything about Kakashi's father?"

Obito shrugged, unsure of what to make of the statement. "It's not like Kakashi tells us _anything_ about himself," Obito rebuffed.

Minato ignored the comment, "his father was Konoha's White Fang. Does that name ring a bell?"

Obito silently nodded. Oh yes, White Fang was mentioned in the Uchiha household— but never in good terms. The man died in disgrace and was treated as such. Just because he had killed himself didn't change his status in the Uchiha's red-tinted eyes.

"After his disastrous mission that I'm sure you've heard of, White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, committed seppuku in an attempt to honorably end his life. What he didn't intend on was Kakashi finding him." Minato smiled grimly at the fractional widening of Obito's eyes. "He was dead by that point, his tanto lodged in his abdomen, but that didn't prevent Kakashi from remembering that moment forever."

Obito felt bile rise in his throat as he thought of the sheathed tanto always on his teammate's back. "Is that . . ." Obito's voice trailed off. He didn't want to say it— as if just mentioning it would return the tanto to its blood-soaked state.

Minato frowned, "I wanted him to toss it away, or at the very least put it in the attic to rust, but he insisted on keeping it."

Obito thought of his parents who were gone. They had died in the Second Shinobi World War. Anything, even if it was like a painful throb in his chest constantly reminding him, would be enough. Obito had nothing to recall his parents by— they were merely blurs in his memory. Was Kakashi's tormented state better than Obito's ignorant one?

Minato didn't have to say anything more— Obito understood. Perhaps Kakashi was still the jerk he was in the morning, but he was a slightly more understandable jerk to Obito.

* * *

The scenery around the company slowly grew leafier, until they found themselves on the edge of a thick forest. Minato checked his map a second time, then handed it to Kakashi, the smaller teen's hands assertively finding their location and Kannabi Bridge.

"We'll be splitting up now," Minato announced, glancing to Urushi, "Urushi will be able to assist, but for the most part, Kakashi this is your expedition."

Obito doubted that the stoic teen would _let_ Urushi help command the group. Kakashi nodded and quickly burned the map with a small _katon_ jutsu. "Let's move on."

The group, minus Minato, leaped to the trees with chakra in their footsteps.

Kakashi felt nostalgia rush through him. These trees and the air, even the chirping of birds, reminded him of his dreams and nightmares of this fateful day. He was determined to change _something_, even if it meant taking Obito's place.

After hours of undisturbed travel, Kakashi was beginning to feel tense. The trees had started to seem almost familiar. They hadn't been ambushed yet, which meant the Iwa nin were probably drawn off by the larger size of the group, which _also_ meant the timeline was shifting to a much larger degree than Kakashi had anticipated. That meant he no longer knew what to expect, which was setting him on an edge.

Kakashi would've felt much more comfortable slitting an enemy nin's throat instead of this stifling, sensation of _waiting_. Kakashi was usually a very patient man, he'd learned the consequences of brash actions the hard way— but that was before he thought he knew what to expect.

Without warning, a kunai slammed into Naruto, catching the scruff of his vibrant orange jumpsuit, pinning him to one of the towering trees surrounding them. Kakashi swiftly pushed against a tree, using chakra to stop the momentum of his run. A shuriken slid quickly into his palm and he blindly shot at one of the maroon-and-beige clad enemy-nin. Just as the man fell, Kakashi caught the gleaming symbol of Stone on his hitai-ate.

Kakashi's younger self wasted no time advancing on the other shinobi. He yelled an order at Obito, the later listening for once, backing off to allow the silver-haired jounin room. Sparks flew into the air as the Iwa nin's sword scraped against Kakashi's tanto, light shining on the blade.

As the noise died down, it was apparent that the enemy nin was fleeing. Kakashi sensed their chakra signature fade away into the distance. He frowned to himself as he saw the unconscious shinobi Kakashi himself had fought was gone— his comrade had taken him in the confusion.

Kakashi sighed to himself, it couldn't be helped. Anyways, it wasn't like Kakashi didn't already know their plans.

"Everyone here? Alright, we should continue on—" Kakashi's younger self continued, voice surprisingly unperturbed despite the unexpected ambush.

"Kakashi," Sakura spoke up, brow furrowed, "Na- Arashi— he's gone," her voice held concern for her oftentimes-foolish but lovable teammate. True enough, Naruto was gone from his position on the tree, the only sign he was there was a jagged scar created by a kunai being violently wrenched from the bark.

Kakashi felt panic rising in him— _not Naruto_, he hissed to himself. A flurry of curses came to mind. Minato would be so disappointed in him— by _Kami_, Kakashi was disappointed in himself! His student, his _friend_, was gone and this was supposed to be Kakashi's timeline. He was supposed to know what was happening and keep his family _safe_. So much for being in control. Dimly, Kakashi realized he'd never really _had_ control— throughout his life, which seemed far too long in retrospect, he'd always struggled to gain control in all the ups and downs. But even in his own timeline, with his genin teams, he'd never had it. Obito had died, Rin killed, Konoha destroyed, Minato and Kushina killed, Sasuke deserted, even Naruto and Sakura had found other teachers. Clenching his hand around a kunai, Kakashi was ready to make a break for the woods to follow Naruto and the Iwa nin.

Perhaps he could accept that he couldn't control matters in his life— but Hatake Kakashi was not one to roll over and just take it.

* * *

Kakashi's younger self was anything but worried. Displeasure was evident on his masked face, dark grey eyes meeting all members of the team, "I was placed captain of this team and I will make sure we get this mission completed." He vowed solemnly.

"But, Kakashi, at the cost of Naruto?" Sakura protested, disbelief lacing her tone. Out of all the atrocities Kakashi had committed, this was, by far, the most shocking. After all, wasn't Sakura's sensei the very man who had drilled into them the importance of teamwork, chiding Sasuke at every turn when he failed to register the lessons?

The teen frowned, "why should we risk the mission for him? He was obnoxious, loud, and with his outfit, he can be blamed for his own capture. You three were visitors anyways, it's not like he could give up any information about Konoha that Iwa doesn't already know."

Kakashi felt ice settle in his gut— of course he'd already analyzed and determined the risk factor alongside pros and cons of going after Naruto. This younger Kakashi had yet to realize the value of family. A few more minutes, Kakashi told himself. He had to let the timeline persist for as long as possible— the more changes he caused, the less he'd be able to prepare and expect for what would happen.

Finally Obito, who had less restraint than Kakashi, stepped up to the younger teen, grabbing the front of his shirt. "What the hell are you thinking?" The Uchiha spat at Kakashi. "Arashi may not have been our teammate or a real shinobi of Konoha, but he's our friend!" Obito's voice cracked at the unmoving expression on Kakashi's face.

"He's your friend, isn't he?" Obito whispered.

Rin stepped up behind Obito, resting a restraining hand on his shoulder, face pained, "Kakashi, can't we go after Arashi? It'll only slow the mission down a bit," she reasoned.

Kakashi glared at the rest of Team Minato, infuriated by their misunderstanding, "don't you _understand_? Iwa nin know we're here. We're going to be hard-pressed to get to Kannabi Bridge before being intercepted again. We need to head off as quick as possible so we can complete the mission—"

"Mission this, mission _that_," Obito yelled, "I've had enough of your robotic leadership Kakashi. Can't you see that we need to find and get back our comrade? That's what comrades _do_."

Sakura gave a fearful glance to her mentor, Kakashi's gaze shadowed as he gazed at himself. Did Kakashi know this would happen? Was this _supposed _to happen? Sakura bit her lip, confusion and the want to strangle the teenager swirling in her mind. And then that brought up the point of Naruto— the headache-inducing teenager was still a part of Sakura's family, she couldn't _lose_ him, not like Sasuke.

Just as Sakura felt ready to burst into Team Minato's argument, Obito stood back from Kakashi angrily.

"I'm going off to save Arashi!" Obito shouted.

Kakashi seethed, "you understand _nothing_ Obito. There's a reason why you're _dead last_."

Obito rebuked, "there's a reason why I have _friends_. Kakashi, I understand more than you think. Those who break the rules are trash, but those who leave behind their comrades are _worse_ than trash— I think White Fang was a true hero!"

Kakashi looked visibly shaken by Obito's words, but his eyes narrowed, "you're wrong Obito. My father was _weak_, and so are you."

The white-haired teenager stalked off, leaping to the trees in one chakra-filled jump. He quickly started rushing off in the direction of the Kannabi Bridge.

No one else made to follow him.

The older Kakashi watched his own back retreat, and wondered if this is what Obito felt in a timeline so long ago— overwhelming, earth-crushing _disappointment_ at himself. How foolish Kakashi had been. Perhaps he still was.

Kakashi got up, "I'll follow him and make sure completes the mission. It'll be up to the three of you to obtain our side-mission: rescuing Arashi," Kakashi sighed.

Sakura grabbed his arm just as Kakashi was making to leave, "what are you planning on doing?"

"Kakashi's stupid, but he's right. This mission will help determine a large factor of the war— it's a big supply route," Kakashi explained, "now go. Obito and Rin are waiting." Kakashi wanted nothing more than to leave with his old team, making sure they were safe and nothing would happen to them.

But, Kakashi had no way of knowing how largely their presence impacted the timeline. Would Kakashi even feel pressured to go back to Obito this time? Kakashi wasn't willing to take the chance.

Pushing even more chakra through his sandals, Kakashi prepared to talk sense into himself.

* * *

Naruto woke in darkness, sweet scents wafting through his nostrils. His blue eyes blinked blearily, head throbbing.

All he could recall was arms materializing, the genjutsu concealing the owner disappearing, around him as a kunai hit him on the head with the blunt edge. The Iwa nin had proceeded to rip Naruto down from the tree, tie him up, and, when he realized Naruto wasn't fully unconscious (perhaps the fox assisted Naruto's resilient skull), cast a genjutsu upon him.

After that, Naruto assumed the Iwa shinobi had taken him to their hideout— an earthy, underground cavern with a single exit with light that hurt to look at. Naruto's Konoha hitai-ate had been taken from him and Naruto felt a sense of loss without it.

The Iwa nin's crude features stared at Naruto with scrutinizing grey eyes, "Alright kid, we're going to have you tell us about Konoha."

Naruto, head pounding with a heavy pressure on the back of it, felt the need to tell the Iwa nin everything he knew about Konoha. The urge to speak was like a cough that tickled Naruto's throat, smoothly dancing in his chest murmuring, _talk, talk talk_.

But at the same time, there was a fundamental sense of _wrongness_ associated with talking. Konoha was his home— these men were his enemies, so why was Naruto feeling such a sense of loyalty to _them_? Naruto realized he had stopped his escape attempts long ago, his body lulled, and suddenly struggled in the chains once more, determined not to speak for fear of blurting out something not even from the correct timeline.

The Iwa interrogator gave a dissatisfied huff and called to his partner, "put on another layer of genjutsu— this kid's being stubborn." The words barely registered to Naruto, who was already being assaulted with another wave of smells and sights that didn't match up with the cave. But the Iwa nins weren't trying to convince Naruto of what he was seeing, they merely seemed to know Naruto's weakness for genjutsu, working to overload his senses.

Sweat broke out on Naruto's forehead and he hissed. The second Iwa nin frowned and a vein popped on their head as they continued to feed their chakra into Naruto's system. _Don't talk_, he hissed to himself. Silence answered him. Not even Kurama could help Naruto now.

* * *

Kakashi caught up to himself, reaching out a gloved hand to stop the teen's speed. Kakashi's younger self turned around, aiming a kick at Kakashi's head then pausing when he realized who it was. Kakashi had a feeling his younger self wouldn't mind kicking Urushi (he hadn't exactly been the most pleasant to himself).

"Urushi," Kakashi greeting was clipped and cold, "are you here to try and stop me as well? I need to complete the mission even if no one else is willing to."

Kakashi frowned at himself— Kami he'd been a brat.

"I'm merely here to warn you," Kakashi spoke finally after a few terse seconds.

"Of what?" Kakashi frowned through his mask.

Kakashi stepped back, "of doing something stupid you'll regret." Kakashi glanced up— it was already nearing noon and with the timeline already changed, he had no clue where Obito's team might be at this point. "Now come on, the bridge can wait."

"But—" Kakashi's younger self started.

"If there are more shinobi, you'll have Minato and the rest of your team backing you up later," Kakashi cut him off, "you aren't as lonely as you might think. There are plenty of people around you willing to help. You just need to let them."

The teen scowled, "I don't need anyone."

"Really? What about earlier today? I'm sure you would've done fine against three full-fledged Iwa shinobi, sure," Kakashi tried to keep his voice level, but sarcasm still managed to leak in.

Kakashi glanced aside, "I would've figured it out."

"Yes, I'm sure you can truly reflect on how badly you'd miscalculated as your lifeblood soaks into enemy ground," Kakashi made sure his younger self was following. That and he was enjoying berating himself quite a bit. At least this time things would turn out better— Kakashi would make sure of it.

"You don't know anything— you never came back for dad!" Kakashi called from behind, bitterness tinging his voice. "You can't lecture me when you weren't even here when he needed support."

Ah yes, Kakashi had nearly forgotten their cover story: Urushi, the unmentioned brother of Sakumo. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. But from what I can see, you have good teammates Kakashi. They consider you a comrade, friend, even family."

"Family?" Kakashi gave a harsh laugh, one unbefitting of a teenager. A child's laughter was supposed to be happier, more uplifting. The more time Kakashi spent around himself, the more dreary of a child he realized he was— he'd brought serious looks of solemnity from others, unlike the way Naruto brought joy and light to people's faces. How depressing.

"What do you know of family? You _left_ my father— your brother."

Kakashi, despite the fact he shouldn't know this, couldn't help but snap back, "And I'm sure you were always by his side."

The teenager stopped, unreadable expression on his face. "That's it. I'm done listening to you. I'm going back— this was a stupid idea."

Kakashi felt anger rise up in him, "that's it. I'll finish the mission. Kakashi, _you_ will finish what you started the moment you entered Team Seven. You made an obligation and you'll follow it through. If not for your family, do it for your team. Make Sakumo proud of his son."

The boy made move to protest, unsettled by Kakashi's easy use of his father's name, but Kakashi was already on his way. Retracing his steps all the way back to Kannabi.

* * *

"Come on guys, there are signs of them walking this way," Rin called.

Every step moved caused doubt to rise in Obito. He was the leader of their little expedition now and if they moved off-track at any point that could mean ending up far from their target and missing Arashi, leaving him to Iwa. .

A tiny voice in his head murmured about how easily Kakashi could've summoned his ninken and tracked down Arashi's scent. But Kakashi had left them, thick headed he was, and now Obito was thrust into a terrifying position of responsibility. Obito was constantly afraid that they misread a broken twig, or went down the wrong path.

The Uchiha suddenly gained respect for the little decisions Minato-sensei made every day. Being leader meant you were accountable for _everything_— from the tiny requests you made to the large-scale orders. The power was addictive and petrifying for Obito. He had to force chakra through his limbs just to muster up the courage to keep walking.

After a fortunately few amount of incidents, Obito found them in front of a cave, where Sasami sensed Arashi's chakra signature.

"Alright," Obito whispered to the two, "we'll sneak in there, disarm the Iwa nin, and—"

Obito felt a shoulder knock into him. Kakashi knocked Obito to the side, dark grey eyes staring mercilessly around, "stupid. They're watching you!" Kakashi whipped out his tanto as he sensed movement and raised the blade and sparks flashed as an invisible blade slammed against it.

Despite Kakashi's harsh tone his heart was beating in his throat, his voice barely sounding something other than choked. After angrily running from Urushi, Kakashi had finally paused and thought over the harsh conversation. Urushi had made several points, but Kakashi still couldn't understand why his father did what he had done. Until now.

It was easy to spite Sakumo for the heavy choice he had made that day without being Sakumo at the time. After all, even his teammates and son had turned their backs on him.

Kakashi thought he hated Obito— the obnoxious boy always coming to practices late and being a nuisance, but that was before Kakashi had seen the Iwa nin prepared to kill the Uchiha in cold blood.

Obito had become the brother Kakashi had never wanted, but didn't realize he needed.

Obito made to thank Kakashi and he felt amused— Obito was trying to thank him in the middle of a war zone, that was just the sort of guy Obito was. Kakashi gave a thin smile and watched the bark, looking for the telltale indent of the enemy nin's feet on the ground. Their genjutsu couldn't change the physical impact the shinobi had on the environment.

Kakashi's eyes flicked about more violently— where was he?

_There_.

There was no time to raise the tanto gripped in Kakashi's sweaty palms.

_Don't do something stupid you'll regret_.

I'm past regret, Kakashi thought, determination coursing through his veins. He'd spent enough time shunning and turning his back on people. Kakashi had never understood Obito because he'd never tried to. But Kakashi realized now, Obito's motives— the reason why Obito kept working with Kakashi even though they both obviously had aggression towards each other.

_If not for your family, do it for your team_.

That's what Urushi had been trying to tell him— because Team Seven wasn't just Kakashi's team, it truly was his new family after Sakumo's death. _Family_. Kakashi had only a second to contemplate the warmth in his chest as pain spread throughout his being, starting from his left eye.

A scream tore from Kakashi's mouth as the katana ripped through his thin eyelid flesh easily and cut into his eye, rendering it blind. Blood soaked his mask, but he couldn't make an effort to care. All he could think of was— _Obito_. Kakashi slammed backwards into Obito and felt relief. He'd made it in time.

_Make Sakumo proud of his son_.

I was stupid. I _understand_ dad. Kakashi, despite the numbing fire igniting the left half of his face as he clutched his bloody features, felt a sense of weight lifting off of his chest.

But suddenly Kakashi was conscious of someone calling his name. Sasami was prying his fingers away as Rin opened up the emergency medical kit she'd given him. Truly a practical gift, Kakashi thought amusedly. He shouldn't have doubted her so much.

Meanwhile, Obito's limbs shook as he shot forward with a grace unnatural for the Uchiha. Kakashi, wide-eyed, caught a glimpse of red in the other's eyes as the kunai grasped in Obito's hands struck home. The air rippled and the Iwa nin seemingly materialized, dark liquid staining the front of his flak jacket.

A faint rasping noise exited his throat as he fell off the tree into the foliage below.

"Kakashi," it was Rin, "I'm going to need you to not move as we clean your eye or there could be lasting damage."

Unable to nod per her orders, Kakashi merely stayed quiet (something he was rather good at).

Iwa nin taken care of, Obito took up the rest of Kakashi's vision, tears visible in his eyes, sharingan still activated. "You _idiot_, Bakashi! Why'd you do that!?"

Kakashi laughed, moisture burning in his left eye as Sasami and Rin cleaned it. "You unlocked your sharingan finally."

"And you're going to be _blind_ in one eye forever if you don't stop jostling around," Rin scolded, concern evident despite the joking in her voice.

Sasami got up, "I'll look for any herbs we can use." After a second though, Sasami paused, "where did Urushi-sensei go?"

Kakashi froze, in the panic, adrenaline-filled moments that had transpired, he had completely forgotten about the bumbling grey-haired man that wasn't as foolish as he'd seemed. "He said he was going to destroy the bridge," Kakashi paused, the words _because I was too stubborn to come back otherwise_, rested in the air. He silently hoped the man was all right. He and the tanto were all Kakashi had to remember Sakumo by. "He'll probably intercept Minato-sensei when he's done and they'll meet back with us."

Sasami's emerald eyes darkened a fraction then nodded. "Alright." She disappeared, leaving Team Minato alone.

When Sakura turned around, she had a small smile on her face. The scar that would be left on Kakashi's eye, which explained the scar on his sharingan, was terrible, but Sakura was surprisingly happy that Kakashi had come around in the end.

It had been disheartening to find Kakashi's personality as a teenager, but in the end he hadn't disappointed. Sakura just hoped her suspicions of _where_ Kakashi had earned his Uchiha eye were wrong. Surely everyone came out alive?

Kakashi looked at his team and smiled. He felt his face cautiously— the bandage was well secured and felt a rare burst of affection for Rin. How many times would Obito and him be dead without her? "I let you guys down, I behaved childishly," Kakashi murmured. "I'm sorry."

Obito looked equally shocked that Kakashi was admitting a fault and apologizing in the same breath. "Oh, um, it's fine. . ."

Rin held Kakashi's hand, "we should go for Arashi now."

Kakashi nodded. Sasami body flickered onto the branch and Kakashi realized she'd been in close proximity the whole time, leaving to give Team Seven a moment alone. He dipped his head to her in a silent thanks.

"Alright, here's what we'll do," Kakashi started, making sure there were no more Iwa nins approaching them. The other shinobi must've assumed they were beaten. Good— their guard would be down.

* * *

Obito had been the first to slip into the cavern, red eyes gleaming with a sharingan that could pierce through the darkness. He gestured that the coast was clear to the others and quickly made his way to an unconscious Arashi. The blond made an unattractive groaning noise and Obito cut his bonds with a kunai and hefted the teen onto his shoulder.

Sasami was behind Obito and carefully took her teammate out of his hands, making her way to the exit. Obito was about to turn to Rin, when Sasami gave out a yell as an Iwa shinobi blocked her way, thrusting towards her with double swords, the metal glinting maliciously in the shadows.

Just as Obito was about to rush towards Sasami, he saw Kakashi rushing towards her and changed course to the Iwa nin that had materialized next to Rin. Flinging the kunai, the sharingan made everything clearer to Obito, helping him aim better than he normally could. The shinobi gave out a mangled cry as the kunai hit him dead in the head and his teammate fell as well.

The Iwa shinobi spat out a glob of blood and gave a maniacal grin, "it's too late. We have reinforcements coming."

Obito could feel it in the ground, that ominous, creaking, groaning _shake_.

Obito had only been in an earthquake once. Then he had been in the shelter of his home, his aunt Mikoto ushering him and the other children to a safe location. Then the earthquake had also been normal and thankfully fairly weak.

This was not a natural earthquake and it wasn't created by the tremors of the earth, this was created by the Iwa shinobis' intent to kill Obito and _his_ team. And by Kami he wasn't going to let them succeed. "Everyone get to the exit _now_!" Obito shouted, using his innate loudness to his advantage. Helping Sasami for a moment, he shoved her out side with Arashi in her grasp.

Obito ran back, grabbing Rin and Kakashi. The bandage covering his eye was soaked red, wound reopened with the sudden fighting. Kakashi stumbled, rocks hitting his blind side from the collapsing roof.

"_No!_" Obito screamed, yanking Kakashi forward. "We can do this!" He yelled. Then the boulder came.

* * *

Rin was not a stupid or unobservant girl. Just because her hair shined beautifully or that she took care to make herself look presentable didn't mean she was dimwitted or ignorant. She hadn't become one of the best medical nin of her age for nothing.

Rin noticed things— certainly she liked Kakashi, but that didn't mean she hadn't befriended Obito and tried to get the two to cooperate every once in awhile. She noticed the change in Kakashi when he finally returned to them. He smiled for once, he worked with them— Team Minato finally felt like a real family. But now it seemed that wouldn't be possible.

Rin was a medic nin and a good one at that. Medical nin had to work on split-second decisions and constantly had to bear the consequences of those choices. Rin knew the facts— no matter how strong she was, Obito and Kakashi were the fighters of the group. They were the ones that could truly benefit from working and training together. And lastly . . . Rin wasn't memorable. Perhaps this wasn't a fact, but Rin felt it was true— she was raised from a civilian family and had only gotten into the Academy by luck. Kakashi was a Hatake, son of the White Fang, and Obito an Uchiha.

Rin was a good medic nin and she made her choice that day.

She saw the boulder and knew what to do. The instincts that had helped her patch up hundreds of bleeding wounds on battlefields and protect her friends— they were the instincts that led her to do so again. Forcing as much chakra as she dared into her palms, Rin shoved Kakashi and Obito forward, feeling her heart tear apart as she pushed them away from death.

Then the boulder struck and all Rin saw was Obito's devastated red gaze as he realized too late what she was doing and Kakashi's terrified face. What strange expressions to see on the faces she knew so well.

* * *

Kakashi felt something wrong, as if something drastically differently had occurred in the timeline and he was feeling the ripples. Minato looked back at Kakashi and gave a weary smile that was still radiant.

"Something on your mind Urushi?" Minato questioned, looking surprisingly perky for a man just on the battlefield.

Kakashi shook his head, "I think we should speed up," he murmured. There was an ominous feeling in his gut.

Scenery blurred by and the stench of blood hit Kakashi's nose. He saw himself standing alone. Fear hit him— _no they can't both be dead. Where are Naruto and Sakura?!_ Bile rose in his throat until he noticed the two sitting to the side, looking ragged and exhausted, but alive, and that was enough for Kakashi.

He then looked at the prone form of himself. Was he dead? No— Kakashi's younger self shook, coughing as blood caked his face, and dust and grime covered him. Obito, thank Kami— _Obito_, lay next to him, a similar, haunted expression in his eyes. He was alive. Obito was alive— Kakashi had to repeat the mantra over and over to realize its truth.

But something was still wrong. Minato stopped next to Kakashi and, in a strained voice, spoke, "Where's Rin?" Iwa shinobi lay all around them, piled right where they fell in battle.

Kakashi's younger self raised his head in a defeated way, "it's my fault," he rasped. His mask was soaked with uncharacteristic tears. Minato froze. "She's gone— she's buried under the boulders. We tried to get her out but the cave was collapsing," Kakashi's breathing sped up, ragged blasts of air escaping his chest.

"Rin's gone," Obito repeated dully.

Kakashi felt the air leave his lungs, cast back to that horrible day in the swamp. But no, it wasn't Obito under that dooming boulder but Rin— beautiful, caring Rin, who never wanted to hurt anyone. Kakashi, unable to look at himself or Obito, staggered to Sakura and Naruto.

"Are you alright?" Kakashi murmured. "Are you alright?"

Kakashi wanted to retreat back into himself, go back into that blissful, mindless state that had taken him over in ANBU. But he couldn't.

"We'll be alright sensei," Sakura whispered, watching the hysterical light die out in Kakashi's eye.

He had his students and, for a while longer, he had Obito and Minato. Kakashi could make it through. He wasn't alone this time around.

"We should leave this area," Minato finally announced. They left that haunted, bloody field behind, the rocky grave of Nohara Rin left behind.

Someday, a bird would drop seeds there and wildflowers would grow all around and in the cracks of the collapsed boulders. The flowers would sprout so thickly they're like a blanket covering the dead. Travellers who spied upon the carnage may even call it beautiful, but the shinobi who were there can never set foot without shivers.

* * *

Dinner had been somber and even Naruto and Obito barely talked. Kakashi ate without his mask, the teen not caring who saw his face, staring gloomily at his plate, unable to eat.

Finally, when they went to sleep, Kakashi gazed up at the stars and thought about all that had changed. Even though Obito had been saved, the stars seemed to shine a little less brightly upon the world.

When Kakashi awoke, he felt well rested in comparison to the previous night. Not that that was saying much— he had fallen asleep feeling like one of Pakkun's chew toys. As he shifted his blanket off him and stood up, Kakashi immediately sensed something was off. Apparently, whatever had dragged them back in time had done so again in reverse. He was standing on the hardwood floors of his bedroom in Konoha, far away from the site they had slept at close by Kannabi Bridge.

Had time travel occurred once more?

Kakashi looked at his dresser and froze. The framed pictures, his treasures in life, were different. Alongside Kakashi's original childhood Team 7 photo, there was another picture with Obito and Kakashi smiling at the camera.

Just as Kakashi searched his mind and yielded no memory of that date, the day flowed back into his mind as if it had been the day prior. Obito had dragged Kakashi to the photographer, stating Kakashi was far too ageless and they needed photographic documentation of how many grey hairs Kakashi would never grow because he already had a full head of grey ("Silver!" Kakashi had irritably retorted).

Then there was a Team 7 photo with— was Kakashi dreaming— Uchiha Sasuke _smiling_? The stoic, expressionless robot of an Uchiha was grinning. He was next to a perky Naruto who had somewhat tamer hair and Sakura, who was giving a slightly more mature grin.

The day they had met was a memorable one. Kakashi knew these days as if they were his memories, but had no recollection of experiencing them the first time— they were like someone else's movies that Kakashi was watching with familiarity.

On the day they had met, Naruto and Sasuke had already been friends, knowing each other. Luckily, both of their parents had instructed them on making sure the third member of their team felt included and they quickly warmed up to Sakura's witty conversation.

_Parents?_ Kakashi realized that indeed, he could find no sign of the Kyubi Attack in his mind, and even as he thought about it, the previous timeline's events were starting to fade under the new memories. Kakashi felt a sense of terror curl up inside of him as the memories that had made him _him_ faded— he had to struggle to recall the day Obito was crushed under the boulder, changing Kakashi's life forever and giving him constant nightmares. _Obito?_ his mind questioned— _no, it was Rin. Rin she's gone. She's _still _gone_.

In this timeline, Kakashi had never joined ANBU, coping in different ways, helping Obito look after his cousins Itachi and Sasuke, and helping Kushina with everyday chores (per Minato's anxious instructions) when she was expecting Naruto. Kakashi had still maintained the habit of visiting the memorial stone, but this time it was only for one person: Rin. The Kyubi attack had never occurred, Naruto's birth going smoothly.

Kakashi rushed to the mirror, looking at his left eye. He tried opening it. It failed to move. Kakashi pried open the muscles that clearly hadn't been used in some time and felt a reveling feeling of exhilaration— no sharingan. Obito was truly all right. They had changed the timeline.

Eager to see what else had changed, Kakashi walked outside, where he was tackled by three forms.

"Kakashi-sensei, check out what dad showed me!" Naruto yelled loudly, holding up a specially created three-pronged kunai, kanji and sealing written along the hilt. "He says he's going to teach me!"

Kakashi gave an eye-smile, "Really now?" His mind easily provided a memory: the hyperactive shinobi attempting to copy a meticulously designed seal from his father, ending up knocking over the inkwell and spoiling both papers. Minato easily removed the ink, but the experience had showed Naruto's lack of it.

"Sensei I'm going to be leaving next week with Tsunade-shishou!" Sakura explained cheerfully, "ever since the sickness hit Grass, she's been wanting to go over and help them since their health isn't as up to date as ours. She says it'll be a good learning experience."

"I'm sure it will be, good luck, don't catch the plague," Kakashi said dryly.

After the initial hug (which Kakashi was fairly sure the other two had forced him into) Sasuke gave a small smile. "You look exhausted," the Uchiha spoke in his low voice. Kakashi nearly died right then and there— was that _affection_ and _worry_ in Uchiha Sasuke's voice? Uchiha Sasuke, as in, teenage angst extraordinaire, with an unhealthy obsession with vengeance?

"I'm just a bit tired," Kakashi smiled cheerfully. He stole another glance at his other two students. They didn't look like they had just woken up from the other timeline. Perhaps their consciousness' had earlier in the timeline and had had more time to adapt? Or perhaps they didn't recall at all. Even now, Kakashi could feel his old memories fade away. It was worrying as well as freeing, in a way.

Kakashi stared up at the Hokage Monument and noted the four faces carved. Tsunade had yet to become Fifth Hokage. That was good— that meant Minato was still alive. He walked off, leaving his students to socialize.

Kakashi breathed deeply through his mask, taking in the scents of morning Konoha as leaves rustled through the air. It was quiet.

"Oi! Kakashi! Pay attention to me! Baka— oof!"

Kakashi turned around to stare at the pile of, unmistakably, Uchiha Obito. The shinobi hissed as he struggled to stand from his faceplant and Kakashi gave a fond sigh.

"Need a hand?" Kakashi stuck out his hand, lazily helping his teammate up, unable to express how strange it was to be able to do such a simple gesture to his teammate who he thought he had lost again. He shivered at the thought of Rin, but tried to focus on Obito's indignant face.

"Still acting like you know everything," Obito scowled, grin creeping up on his face. "Anyways, you've got a meeting with the Hokage and Minato-sensei wanted me to tell you— otherwise you're always late."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head, anticipation thrumming through him at the prospect of seeing Minato again. "I do my best."

Obito rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets, "whatever, see you later Bakashi."

Kakashi gave an eye-smile in return.

He was home.

**fin.**

* * *

**A/N: It's finished! (finally)**

**Thank you guys all for making writing this enjoyable with your encouraging reviews, follows, and favorites (half of which I don't deserve, honestly my writing style just changes so much).**

**Big thanks and cookies to Rika24, my amazing beta who helped avoid much confusion with sentences!**

**While I lost inspiration for a while, writing the fluff and team interactions for Team Minato was fun. I hope you all had fun reading this fic as I did writing! I'll see you guys on Akatsuki Brothers!**

**-Sumei1**


End file.
